Courtyard of St. Dominic's Monastery in Linden, Va. (www.lindenopnuns.org)

May. 11, 2013

Protestant South Becoming a New Catholic Stronghold

Dixie Catholics credit the strong Southern sense of community, and dialogue with faithful Protestants, with helping to power the Churchâ€™s growth there.

STEPHEN BEALE

LINDEN, Va. — In the waves of turbulence that rippled throughout the Catholic Church in the 1970s, the nuns of St. Dominic’s Monastery found themselves forced to leave their longtime home in Wisconsin in search of a new one.

The nuns moved to a temporary residence in Washington, D.C., while looking for a permanent setting conducive to the cloistered, contemplative life they sought to lead. It would be more than two decades before they found one. When they did, it was in what may seem a most unlikely place: the rural northeast of Virginia, considered one of the Protestant Bible Belt states of the South.

The story of St. Dominic’s Monastery’s southern move may be the story of U.S. Catholicism. New data shows that some of the fastest-growing dioceses in the country are deep in the U.S. South.

The third-fastest-developing diocese is Atlanta, which saw the number of registered parishioners explode from nearly 322,000 in 2002 to 1 million in 2012 — an increase of more than twofold, according to the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University. Atlanta also has the largest Eucharistic Congress in the country, with an annual attendance of about 30,000, according to an archdiocesan official.

Atlanta is not alone. Charleston, S.C., has seen a 50% increase in parishioners over the last decade. Charlotte, N.C., grew by a third, as did Little Rock, Ark. The Diocese of Knoxville, Tenn., established just 25 years ago, is now the 25th-fastest- growing diocese in the nation — and would rank near the top if those official figures counted as many as 60,000 unregistered Hispanic congregants, according to a diocesan official.

Dioceses like Knoxville stand in stark contrast to former Catholic strongholds like Boston and Philadelphia, where parish consolidations, school closures and dwindling priests are the norm.

“Instead of us closing parishes and closing schools, we’re doing the opposite. We’re in total growth mode,” said Deacon Sean Smith, chancellor for the Diocese of Knoxville.

When Knoxville was established as a diocese in 1988, it had 37 parishes. It has since added 14, including four mission parishes. It has also expanded three parishes, built a new high school and opened one middle-elementary school. Meanwhile, the number of parishioners has doubled.

Bountiful Vocations

One telling indicator is vocations to the priesthood. Knoxville expects to have 23 men in graduate seminary next year. Contrast the Archdiocese of Chicago, which has 37 times as many parishioners but only three times as many graduate seminarians next year, at an anticipated enrollment of 70. Boston, which is nearly 30 times the size of Knoxville, will have 60.

“There’s excitement here in Tennessee and I would say in the Southeast in general,” Smith said.

That sentiment is shared by the nuns at St. Dominic’s Monastery, who have found a thriving local Catholic community that boasts nearby Christendom College as another institutional gem.

“We ourselves are astounded by the depth and beauty of the Catholic culture and community that surrounds us,” said one nun, permitted to speak only on the condition of anonymity because of rules governing the cloistered life of the monastery. “We never felt so loved by the surrounding community.”

The Southeast does not have a monopoly on exponential growth. Among the top 25 high-growth dioceses, nearly half are in the U.S. Southwest, stretching from Fresno, Calif., the second-highest-ranking diocese, to Laredo, Texas, the first. But there, Hispanic immigration is behind most of the growth, according to Mark Gray, a research associate at the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate.

In the Southeast, however, something different is happening. In a region where churches sit on seemingly every street corner and billboards belt out Bible verses and calls for repentance, local Catholics say they have found fertile ground for the renewal of the Church.

“Our Protestant brothers and sisters have done us a great favor. Talking about faith here in the South is like eating, breathing and sleeping,” said Randy Hain, a managing partner at Bell Oaks Executive Search in Atlanta and co-founder of The Integrated Catholic Life, an online magazine. “There’s an openness about faith here, which makes it easier to be open about your faith if you’re Catholic.”

Smith, who grew up in Colorado, suggested that it is easier for Northern Catholics to take their faith for granted because most of their friends belong to the Church.

“It doesn’t really challenge the Catholics there to know their faith as well or be able to explain it clearly,” added Lisa Wheeler, founder of Carmel Communications, a Catholic marketing firm in the Atlanta area.

But in the South, where they are a decided minority in a predominantly evangelical-Protestant population, Catholics must constantly defend their faith. As a result, they come to cherish it, Smith said.

Streams of Converts

Dialogue with Protestants has produced a steady stream of Catholic converts, who now constitute one of the driving forces of growth in the region, Wheeler said.

When Hain, himself a convert, was received into the Church in 2006, there were 27 members of his confirmation class. His wife’s class, in the same year, had 33. At the time, there were 1,900 registered families in his parish, St. Peter Chanel in Roswell, an Atlanta suburb. Now, there are more than 3,000, according to Hain.

Converts do more than just fill pews: They bring enthusiasm and passion for their faith with them into the Church, said Hain and Wheeler, a fellow parishioner at St. Peter Chanel. Such energy is reflected in the breadth of ministries at the parish, which number more than 60 — and that’s not counting the many independent ministries run by parishioners. The Integrated Catholic Life is one example of the broad reach of the parish: The other co-founder of the site is a deacon at St. Peter Chanel.

Besides converts, transplants are a second source of growth. In Knoxville, many out-of-state arrivals are known as "halfbacks": people who moved from the cold North to Florida, only to move halfway back, settling in eastern Tennessee, where they can enjoy four seasons, without the cold weather, Smith said. Atlanta has the added allure of being a major transportation hub for business, Wheeler said.

Hispanic immigration is still a factor in regional growth, but it is mentioned more as a secondary contributor than as the leading cause.

Strong Sense of Community

Another potential advantage working in favor of the South: a greater sense of community associated with the predominantly rural character of the region, as contrasted with the dense urbanization of many Northern states.

The difference between rural and urban dioceses can be measured in terms of vocations. “I have seen a trend over the last 10 years, where the most rural dioceses are tending to generate more seminarians per capita than the major rural metropolitan dioceses,” said Father Thomas Baima, the vice rector at Mundelein Seminary in the Chicago area. He says higher-density cities have greater mobility, meaning young people don’t put down roots and make those long-lasting connections to parish communities out of which vocations arise.

Every single state in the U.S. South has a lower population density per square mile than each state along the Boston to D.C. urban corridor, U.S. Census data shows. At the extreme ends, New Jersey has just over 1,195 residents per square mile, against 56 in Arkansas, as of the 2010 Census. In the middle, Pennsylvania has nearly 284 residents per square mile, while Virginia has just over 202.

Even a large city like Atlanta is more decentralized. Most of the metro population is in the suburbs outside the city limits, where communities coalesce around church and school, Hain said.

Lessons for the North

Catholics in the South say their experience holds lessons for their Northern counterparts. Wheeler says Southern hospitality has also rubbed off on local Catholics.

“I think that is something that is missing from many parishes in the North,” Wheeler said. She noted that some of her extended relatives in the Northeast have moved to Protestant churches due to a lack of hospitality in their local parishes.

Hain believes that if Catholics in other areas were as open about their faith as Southerners are, there would be a resurgence in the Church.

In regards to the matter of community, it would be great if our Catholic parishes in the South would invest moe time in exploring the rich ecological heritage of the South; in our faith, this is rightl called God’s Creation.

The South offers so much in regards to ecological sustainability, farm use, etc., to highlight the magnificence of our Lord’s creation. I guess it’s a matter of keeping our children in tune with the Lord and his wondrous deeds.

For 6 years now we have traveled to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, and being faithful catholics found it hard to find a church in the south. But every year it gets easier and easier. In fact we are Byzantine and found a new little Chapel in Conway, S C. Bishop Hopko Chapel is very new and growing monthly. The priest travels from Maryland once a month for a tuesday liturgy but it is well attended and followed by a dinner and social. We we amazed and pleased at the faithfulness of this new catholic family. They were so welcoming and looking forward to growing and offering much more in the future. Of course all of them are transplants from the north but just the same they found a home there in the south and are very much supported by the community and other churches in their growth.

We also attend Our Lady Star of the Sea in Myrtle Beach, and again very much alive and vibrant, with a Catholic School and huge community. There is another Catholic Church in South Myrtle Beach, but we have never attended there.

Kudos to our southern brothers and sisters they don’t flinch at all when you say you are catholic they smile and embrace you as one who loves God, end of story.

I agree with the new found southern church senario…..good job.

Peace and Good,

Renee Harris, sfo

JMJ+

Posted by Susan Fox on Wednesday, May, 29, 2013 7:24 PM (EST):

Dear N. Lindway,
Don’t jump to conclusions. My sister in law is in a very conservative order of Dominicans from the South, and they tried to establish Catholic schools in the Chicago area, but they were pushed out by the liberals. They had to leave because of church authorities in chicago. Traditional Roman Catholic orders are not welcome in some Dioceses in the North. God bless you. Susan Fox http://christsfaithwitness.blogspot.com

Posted by ANNE on Wednesday, May, 29, 2013 10:42 AM (EST):

Those who do not accurately and completely know the Faith can not accurately and completely pass on the Faith to others.
Churches are emptying out especially in the North, with not enough people to financially support them.
Many Bishops and their Diocese Priests do not teach about the mortal sins of Sacrilege against the Body and Blood of our Lord, and Scandal. (Unfortunately, it makes one wonder what some of these Bishops really believe.)
We have lost two generations, who are now lukewarm or no longer identify with the Faith at all.
Catechesis is lousy in many parts of the USA.
.
â€ś In this Year of Faith let us ask ourselves if we have actually taken a few steps to get to know Christ and the truths of faith more, by reading and meditating on the Scriptures, studying the Catechism, steadily approaching the Sacraments. â€ť â€“ Pope Francis 5/13/2013

Posted by N. Lindway on Saturday, May, 25, 2013 2:14 PM (EST):

Religious orders of priests have been leaving parishes in large cities of the north, turning them over to diocesan priests, claiming they have fewer priests to staff parishes. Yet these orders-Franciscans, Benedictines, etc. have been staffing new parishes in the south. The new southern churches have even staffs of priestly orders I have never knew existed such as Oblates of St. Francis, Oblates of Mary Immaculate etc. I am a life long Catholic who is in my seventies and have always been active in the Church, attended Catholic schools, served Mass, sang in choirs. Seems these religious orders are more interested in the new south churches than in serving the faithful in the north. Southern churches have more priests to administer to them, while norhern churches are left with fewer priests and the laity must pick up the slack. No wonder southern churches are growing.

Posted by Susan Fox on Friday, May, 24, 2013 9:13 PM (EST):

Steven, Yeah, that’s my problem with taxes—the money gets siphoned off to other things other than for what it’s intended. The corruption in our government is terrible. I do think the poor should have a right to a good education and that could mean we give them vouchers and let them pay for a good school or homeschool because the quality of public education in low income neighborhoods is poor, and the government can’t handle money for public education.

I have friends who teach school in outdated classrooms in Southern Calif. The rooms were built in the ‘60s for some kind of social experiment in everybody in the same space, so it’s impossible for students in one class to hear the teacher because of the students and teachers talking in the next class. This is near Disneyland, Anaheim, Calif., which you would think would be prosperous. The teachers will suddenly get a ton of money and are told to spend it immediately. Then they need ordinary textbooks and there is no money.

The teachers unions in Calif. get the money intended for the children and teachers. They in turn funnel the money back to the Democratic party. The current administration is trying to take away the right for union workers to vote secretly. If they can’t vote secretly then their vote will be intimidated by bullies. It is a very corrupt system. The teachers union—not teachers themselves—would fight the concept of vouchers for poor people to get education. They want everyone dependent on them so they can keep funneling that money to democrats.

In my humble opinion liberalism destroyed the cities of the Northeast, high taxes, misappropriated funds, social experiments. People move out of the inner city to the rural areas when they can to escape high taxes, crime and all the associated problems. My husband watched it happen in Baltimore. They had a lovely church built by local Catholics during the Depression. This thing is a work of art all in marble, a lovely lovely Church. They had a cohesive community. The Passionists ran the parish. Then in the ‘60s, they started with the clown Masses(started by a priest into Satanism who later committed suicide), and all the junk associated with liberal Catholicism, lousey sermons, puppet sermons, jive Our Fathers, clowns coming from behind the altar with balloons that say “I brake for bunnies,” theatrical reenactments during Mass. Birth control is okay, priests have affairs. They destroyed the faith of most of my husband’s Catholic family. My sister in law is a Dominican nun in full habit, and she is tearing her hair out because the grandchildren aren’t practicing their faith. She is trying her best to evangelize them.

In the ‘60s, My poor father in law was a convert and he used to sneak around and unplug the music during Mass because it was so awful. He said the same crap followed him from the Protestant Church he used to belong to. Once during the sermon, he stood up and started disagreeing with the priest. My father in law and his 7 little children were thrown out by the ushers. My mother in law had to go back to a later Mass with the kids.

He was a lawyer. He loved those old row house neighborhoods in Baltimore. There is a freeway that starts out of downtown Baltimore and then suddenly stops. My father in law stopped it because it would have wiped out a ton of old row house neighborhoods there. I am thinking now somewhat cynically that he might as well saved the effort because the government destroyed the neighborhoods anyway.

They put in Section 8 housing behind his house in the ‘60 or ‘70s(?) He and his family objected and were treated like racists, but they were right. It destroyed the neighborhood. My mother in law sold the family home for $10,000. My sister in law won’t take me to the old house when I visit to see it because she is afraid of the crime down that street. The parish run by Passionists built by a cohesive community in the 1930s? It isn’t large any more. Attendance is way down. Why? the people who took over the neighborhood aren’t culturally Catholic, and the Catholics still there lapsed. They are not managing to cause the faith to grow in the new population. I know that some lay people tried. But when you do door to door evangelization, and people show up to a watered down sermon at Mass it’s very difficult to convert them.

Why is the Dead Sea dead and the Red Sea red? Water flows in and out of the Red Sea, but it only flows out of the Dead Sea. That is what happened to these neighborhoods where liberal Catholicism established a stronghold. They became like the Dead Sea.

Now don’t think my father in law was some rich lawyer. He was too kind to ask his clients, mostly poor people, to pay their bills. My brother in law when he was a kid used to announce the electricity was turned off again, and embarrass his mother. The Baltimore newspaper used to disparage my father in law. He was somewhat famous and they called him a Southern red neck lawyer (although he was from Pennsylvania). But when he died in 1983, at his funeral in that lovely cathedral sized Depression era church, it was packed with people. Most of them looked like poor and ordinary people. They didn’t drive up in limos. And the family didn’t know most of them because he represented the little people, and the little people were grateful! But they were anonymous. No one knew he had helped that many people in the community. God bless you. Susan Fox http://christsfaithfulwitness.blogspot.com
or http://www.YouTube.com Chann,el TestisFidelis

Posted by Terah James on Thursday, May, 23, 2013 5:38 PM (EST):

Does everyone know a group of 3 Roman Catholic nuns are finalists in Jeff Foxworthy’s cable TV program tonight, “The Bible Challenge”? Finalists. Someone pinch me. This is too good to be true.

Let’s all pray the good nuns will win tonight. We ought all be proud of their wonderful effort, one way or the other. They are amazing. There is only ONE Body of Christ, and Jesus has no ‘denomination’.

The participation of these nuns on this non-Catholic program shows (some) Catholics treasure the Bible, and that any Christian can be on the same page with fellow believers. This may encourage others to get into God’s word. A saint said “Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ”. Applause for those nuns!

I know this is off subject, but so much is being discussed on this blog, it seemed appropriate to make a short mention of this here.

Posted by Steven Barrett on Wednesday, May, 22, 2013 7:16 PM (EST):

Whenever necessary to answer a specific objection from a replier, I, and most other “posters” try to keep the answer as specific to the original objection raised. In a case like this Susan, where a whole quarter of the nation was a huge part of the primary subject, I’d have to also address the “regional” aspect of the subject as well as any specific matters at hand. Taxes in general, sure occupy the thoughs of a lot of people on both sides of the Mason Dixon line because one side usually complains about the other side getting more than its fair share in return for its dollars sent to Washington. LOL, if there was ever a more effective conversation starter or sustainer, taxes will always be up there in the rankings. Same goes for stress and ambiance. Strangely,I just came across an article about stressed out areas and the narrative part (along with a pictographic map) said despite the higher rate of poverty down South, stress tensions were lower. Rural areas aren’tas hung up on keeping up with the Jones. But that shouldn’t let any pols off the hook for stiffing the poor out of their bang for their education dollars for their kids. We can’t all be born on “the right side” of the tracks so to speak; and this part of the issue touches on some legal (equity) issues as well. I’ll bet you’re probably sending Him a lot more Thanks for being able to catch one of America’s oldest feuds besides the Hatfields and McCoys. Perhaps one of the things that really hurts most is how so many adult children, well meaning no doubt, cajoled their parents to “come on down” for a variety of whatever reasons, some valid, some that retrospectively speaking could’ve been less self-centered. (Yes, nobody likes to fly into cold weather during the winters to check on Nana and Gramp still living back in their same neighborhood where many of their parents friends and siblings still live. But to uproot old folks, resettle them into gated “Adult Community Living Centers” (let’s call ‘em Florida-ese for Gated Ghettos for Geezers)and expect them to start all over hunkydory with total strangers and be just as happy had they never moved, even fi nding a really nice friendly parish, it’s not a true mix and eventually when the “newness” of the move wears off, the grandchildren turn into grandteens (LOL), they’re ready to go back home. But to what where they came from? Within a span of ten years, I remember seeing my parents home town of Holyoke MA, once the “Paper City” of the nation, go from a vibrant city to looking worse han East Berlin during the years right after wall w ent up. Imagine this scene multiplied several thousand times over. Yes, the Sunbelt promised a lot of promise years back; unfortunately, many of the things promised and the lifestyle the Snowbirds counted on to relocate there and sustain its huge growth have been yanked due to budget constraints, over building, which created its own problems and what a horribly contrasting situation many good fine people be they Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Muslims, et al, found no thanks to the proli feration of the large sleaze racket with the huge xx-rated “theaters” not to mention strip mall length rows of porn shops, no pun at all intended. Add in a slew of cheap liquor stores and very little or no zoning in many locations, esp . on unincorportated county lands, well, it’s not hard to see what needs to be done to clean things up. But they won’t and the reason for this is that “rugged ol’ American individualism” spirit which is packaged bunk, especially after the developers get their claws into local governments which in effect force the towns more and more now to take funds from schools to keep the boys in suits happy. Multiply this all over the south, esp .in Southern FL , Houston, Dallas ... and it’s not as pretty any more and while I hope the friendlier ambiance down South never fades, it won’t take a soothsayer to predict how much ugliert things will become for the entire nation if it comes to this. Here’s where the Church has to really step in and make itself seen fully integral with its growing new Southern presence.If it doesn’t, and we Catholics mustn’t ever forget that this is a Protesant nation, founded on the colonial foundations set in motin by mostly Protestants who wanted no part of Rome. If we blow it now by acting much like grew used to in the North, with all the arrog ance so many of my Catholic neighbors and uinfortunately, relatives could put on display, it won’t be pretty. Prayers and Patience will I think, be the best “tools” to have on hand for long haul results that’ll prove best for both Catholics and Protestants in Dixie. PS: I used to live in Cheyenne at Ft Warren and Denver an esp. Estes Park were my favorite Saturday picnic spots.

Posted by Susan Fox on Wednesday, May, 22, 2013 5:48 PM (EST):

No Steven, I am not offended, but maybe I can explain what I meant by the Magisterium of the Catholic Church. Jesus Christ didn’t write a book. He gathered 12 men together and taught them. This teaching is known as the Deposit of Faith, the Oral and Written Word of God, and what that means is that there is no new public revelation since the time of Christ and the Apostles. What the Church attempts to do is conserve that teaching, not make new doctrine suddenly two centuries later. That act of conservation gives us the teaching authority of the Church. This deposit of faith is not really something that would tell you directly how to think of politics. Jesus didn’t teach that everyone had to vote conservative in the 21st century. He said nothing about this. So really as lay people we are free to make decisions on politics, but we need our conscience to be informed by the Deposit of Faith—the teaching of Jesus Christ. So Jesus didn’t say, “No abortion.” But murder is wrong in the 10 Commandments and the Beatitudes. And Pope John Paul II, whose job it was to preserve the deposit of faith handed down to us through the centuries from the apostles, he wrote a beautiful document called “The Gospel of Life.” This document gives great advice on voting regarding the issue of life. For instance he says if you have a choice between two evils, you take the lesser evil. Therefore a politician that supports legal abortion and tax money going to pay for abortions is a bad choice if, for instance, he is running against a candidate who is also for legal abortion, but opposes any tax money going to it. It’s a terrible choice, and I wouldn’t blame anybody staying home from an election if they have to make that choice, but still we have some guidelines. Now “The Gospel of LIfe” is part of the teaching Magisterium of the Catholic Church. It pays to read and pray over such a document, to inform your conscience. We should also read Vatican II prayerfully. It conserves the teaching of Jesus Christ as handed down from the apostles. But it does not say one religion is as good as another. Yet I’ve had RCIA lay ministers in the name of Vatican II tell me that one religion is as good as another. They’ve never read the Vatican II document: “The Second Vatican Council’s Decree on Ecumenism explains: “For it is through Christ’s Catholic Church alone, which is the universal help toward salvation, that the fullness of the means of salvation can be obtained. It was to the apostolic college alone, of which Peter is the head, that we believe that our Lord entrusted all the blessings of the New Covenant, in order to establish on earth the one Body of Christ into which all those should be fully incorporated who belong in any way to the People of God.“268 So there is no salvation outside Jesus Christ and his Church according to Vatican II, which is the teaching Magisterium of the Catholic Church. But that in no way means that anyone who is not Catholic will go to hell, which is what some Catholics before Vatican II sometimes appeared to believe—erroneously. There are a ton of things that were believed then and there are a ton of things believed now and attributed to Vatican II, which the Church never said, which the Church never believed. One has to read and pray over the Church documents to understand the teaching authority of the Magisterium of the Catholic Church. Put on the mind of Christ, read Scripture and also the New Catholic Catechism ( which is the fruit of Vatican II). Once a Catholic starts down this path, then he is able to make choices about current events.

I can certainly understand if you have been exposed to a person who believes he knows what the Catholic Church teaches but has never read, nor studied what the Catholic Church teaches. The only thing you can do is read it yourself.

Mitt Romney was certainly a difficult choice for a Catholic because he has given millions of dollars to the Morman Church. I love the Morman people, but in their ignorance, they have destroyed the faith of countless Catholics. I have seen the devastation in small communities which have been evangelized by Mormans. Perhaps—God is reminding me—the fault of the loss of faith of these once faithful Catholics should go to the local Catholic Church in the United States, which failed to protect the Deposit of Faith, to guard it and to teach it, and as a result a ton of little dumb Catholics are now Mormon. They are now polytheists because Mormons believe that the Father Son and Holy Spirit are three separate corporal beings, (3 gods) and everyone who is Mormon is becoming a god. That’s a lot of gods.

However, I voted for Mitt Romney because of what Pope John Paul II wrote in the “Gospel of LIfe.” Romney was the lesser of two evils. Romney was Mormon, but he was pro-life. In the Senate, Barack Obama supported infanticide. He said the child born alive in abortion should not have his life preserved and protected. (He is another Kermit Gosnell, who now faces two life sentences) Obama said he would never “punish” his daughter with a baby, i.e. his own grandchild, the implication being “kill the grandchild to convenience the daughter.” He also said he didn’t know when life began because that was “above his pay grade.” I don’t see that anything good could come out of a man who thought that way. Barack Obama was the greater of two evils. And actually he now plots to murder the poor and elderly in this country. The reason why the IRS will get our medical records in Obama “Care” is to decide if we can have any more medical care. If the government adopts a single payer system and the government decides you’ve had enough, then you are dead. In Oregon, which has legal euthanasia, this has happened. A poor woman dependent on the Oregon State medical care system needed a drug for her cancer that would cost $4,000 a month. She could live with that drug. But Oregon said they couldn’t afford it and they offered her cheap drugs to end her life immediately. Really, a person who is sick doesn’t need this kind of message: “you are disposable.” They need love, compassion and care. And a rich person getting this message could afford to save themselves, a poor person could not. So not only would they be poor and sick, they would be handed a pill and told to get out of the way. That’s the way the Democrats serve the poor.

Re: the inheritance tax. We will have to agree to disagree. I personally, and this is not Catholicism, I PERSONALLY don’t believe that my money belongs to the government. I’m willing to give them a little for the public good—roads and military, but that’s it!

Re: the military getting medical care. I think sadly in some cases they are better off seeking medical care outside the VA and the military. I had a friend who died from Agent Orange, he was a veteran of the Vietnam War. We spent hours talking about his difficulty in getting the military to pay for his medical care and that of his son, who suffered health problems because he was conceived after the VietNam War. My friend lived in a tiny one room apartment in a very poor part of town, and any money he got he gave to his son to help him with his medical bills. He was very devoted to Psalm 23—The Lord is my Shepherd. God took care of him, not the military. My roommate in Virginia in the 1980s was a female Marine, who received a brain injury in Karate practice, an injury caused by her immediate superior. I was a civilian, but her military friends brought her home and dumped her on my couch. She couldn’t speak. Within minutes I called my Muslim doctor friend, and my cousin, an anesthesiologist, and recounted her symptoms. They both agreed she was probably bleeding from her brain. I called her military friends, and ordered them to come back to our apartment and we all got in their car and drove to the military hospital emergency room. The military “medical person” who received her in emergency couldn’t figure out what was going on, and asked me if she was prone to faking illnesses. I told him that she got up in the snow and cold when she was desperately ill and went to work many times without complaint. This is true. She was the most faithful person I ever met. But he still discharged her even though she couldn’t speak, and sent her home with me, telling me to check her eyeballs all night long. I kept falling asleep so I called a friend of ours and she watched her until early in the morning when the sign of brain bleeding was there, and we called an ambulance. She did have exactly what my cousin diagnosed over the phone at the beginning of the evening, and she had brain surgery at a military hospital, and suffered from epilepsy the rest of her life. Another friend of mine mourns her beloved father because the VA failed to diagnose his cancer in time. I really don’t know any good cases of military medical care! Although I have seen some beautiful young people running with an excellent and complete prosthetic—hip to ground. I assume they lost their leg in one of these wars and the military patched them up. We can always hope huh? Boy we both like to talk.
God bless you. Susan Fox http://christsfaithfulwitness.blogspot.com

Posted by D. L. on Wednesday, May, 22, 2013 4:45 PM (EST):

Good grief man, would it kill you to use paragraph breaks?

Posted by Theo on Wednesday, May, 22, 2013 3:02 PM (EST):

Susan and Steven: create paragraphs in your posts by leaving a double space every two or three sentences. Your posts are impossible to read.

@Susan. Maybe I overreached and read too much into this: “My definition of â€śrealâ€ť Catholic is anyone who follows the Magesterium of the Roman Catholic Church. Thatâ€™s not judgmental. Thatâ€™s simply a definition of fact.” Do we judge who’s really American or not based on their willingness to support or not support a certain ruling by the Court or law passed by Congress? No. We simply let the courts decide the legality or illegality of the person’s actions. There’s a huge difference in commiting an act of civil disobedience by an individual citizen viz. say the gov of Kansas telling the Federal gov’t it won’t recognize the national gov’t's authority to enforce even the mildest and most reasonable restrictions placed on firearms ownership. This is far cry from enforcing the Fugitive Slave Act. And nobdy in the Confederacy lost ther citizenship lost their citizenship until they forfeited it by taking up arms or supporting tohose who when Fr. Sumter was fired on. Within the Church, there seems to be a growing number of Catholics who’ll tolerate or brook no opposing view about even the reasonableness of what might appear to any number of people, liberal or conservative, as being overly harsh, restrictive and/or even flying in the face of Vat II documents on ecumenism. These are just examples where a too rigidly applied measuring stick will do more to divide us than bring us together. Getting on to our disagreements about gov’t spending, be it on education, or disaster aid, I firmly maintain that our government and society would all apart if everybody got away with dictating to the gov’t what they’ll pay for or not pay for outside of the military and road construction. Unfortunately, my stridency was no doubt colored by a longstanding (albeit very friendly) dispute with a close family member. He grew up in military family as I had, never wanting for the best health care, excellent public schools on base when his parents could not find , or better yet, afford, LOL, “on the economy.” As dependent he was able to live overseas in Europe and this exposure and his love history no doubt shaped his academic and post grad careers after graduating from a military college. Oh, I’d hear the loud “Yeah, but I earned everything,” reply when I’d remind him about what fiscally conservative ideas could lead to, drawbridge pulling. OUCH! Well, did he “earn” everything,includin the terrific jump on life he was so blessed by fortune and great luck to have bestowed upon him simply by being fortunate to be raised for the first 18 to 22 years of his life in a military family. He’s not alone as I have seen many drawbridge yankin’ PhD’s who all of a sudden, having received tenure, move into an area and do whatevr they can to make their towns all the more exclusive, supposedly on the bogus nottion that like minds will attract each other. All they do is invite more cheap-minded “thinkers” to join in their quest to build their idea of a muncipal theme park full of eggheads; many of whom are the cheapest skinflints with the shortest memories. Romney appealed to that ilk; a very arrogant self-serving caste of (so-called) “self-made” people” who are so incredibly numbskulled enough to believe their own myths. I’d venture to wager that many of them were already like Mitt himself, born on 3rd base with no catcher covering the plate of life’s ups n downs. And now this bunch, like my relative, wants to abolish all inheritance taxes. Ever see any funerals followed by an armored car? Do you want your tax dollars for just the Pentagon and highways to be used for defending XYand Z corporations abroad, which is what a lot of mealy mouth’d pols won’t admit what “key foreign interests” really means. That’s blood money if our armed forces become relegated to what they were during the real heydays of GOP crass dog-eat-dog capitalism,the 20’s when the Marines were sent to run Haiti, Nicaragua and other “countries” to keep our magnates back home comfy in clover. And should roads only be kept up to serve the interests of corporate America? I’m sure you don’t unless you haven’t seen old films of Appalachian coal towns in W. Virginia. The bossman got the roads built, to suit him first. I’m quite willing to pay whatever taxes necessary to help this nation sink into the status of a Third World minor state. If this also means making sure even homeschool kids parents get add’l tax relief, I could bend provided the funds only went into makin sure the kids were taught something and not left to watch their idiot box for the lesson material. “History Channel,” as a true educational resource. Once in a blue moon, and there it needs rechecking; esp. since it keeps plugging Freemasonry’s or the South’s version of history every other month or so it seems. Even this morning’s rerun of its Civil War series about General Sherman made him out to look like a mix of Genghis Khan and Attila. We simply do not, as a nation, and thank God for this, have any “option” to allow everybody to think a nation as large and significantly powerful as ours to dissolve itself on an altar of “civic” selfishness and think we can escape God’s and the rest of the world’s judgment. And when I hear already wealthy congressmen and women blab on about how they don’t want to spend their kids future earnings away, all that’s left is to scram HYPOCRITE because these guys robbed middle income people like ourselves to line the future pockets of the very same kids they were just publcly whining for on the floors of the House & Senate. God Bless you too Susan and I’m truly sorry for offending you in any way .

Posted by Susan Fox on Tuesday, May, 21, 2013 4:37 PM (EST):

Dear Steven,
I still can’t see what you are upset about except you don’t seem to like the South. I am living in Colorado. I am a native of Southern Calif. I don’t have any connection to the South, but I very much admire their faith. I think your problem is that you have two family members living down there urging you to move down there, and therefore you have spent a long time thinking about why you don’t want to move South. I am not urging you to move South. I am not urging you to do anything. I am not telling you how to live your life.
However, if there is economic prosperity somewhere else than where I am—I move to get it! We happily lived in Arizona the last 10 years, but the work was not there, and so we moved to Colorado solely to get a secure job. We hate snow, but heck we got food on the table, so who is complaining? God bless you. Susan Fox http://christsfaithfulwitness.blogspot.com

Posted by Steven Barrett on Monday, May, 20, 2013 2:00 PM (EST):

Let me clarify one thing; I have nothing against the South as a whole, or southerners as a whole either; regardless of what states they live in or how and where they worship the Almighty. Both my two brothers live there permanently. And at one time I gave serious thought to relocating based on some of the same things that attracted so many other readers and participants in this particular thread. The previous level of thinking I gave to the idea wasn’t enough to help me “make peace” with many of the subjects I commented above. This is the level of thought that has to penetrate the heart as well as the mind. It’s easy enough to read and hear about economic boom times in faster growing areas and find yourself wondering, “Hmmm, what do those people have that we don’t?” over and over, not to mention getting swayed by some of the local realtors’ listing publications. Don’t they ever pack ‘em with lots of real estate “eye candy”! How’s the candy looking in the wake of the 2009 BUST? Especially in Florida? Who’d want to be the last owner standing in a ghost neighborhood after the likes of BankAmerica, AIG, et al got through with all their roboforeclosures? Who’d want to live in a state were consumer protection laws are watered down if they have any at all? And who’d want to have their kids in public schools that their own governor is hell bent on wreckingso his pals in the home-schooling racket or “private Christian academies” which have long been used to shelter white kids from Catholics, Hispanics, and of course, African American kids. (This was rampant in Florida 40 years ago and some Catholic “like-minded” parents tried to use the Boston Archdiocesan Schools to get around desegregtion. Thankfully Humberto Cardinal Medeiros put his foot down with a resounding thud to say Boston’s Catholic schools wouldn’t be used as a wedge or hideaway.) When your chuch is founded by no less than Jesus and its foundation is sturdier than the latest revision of the last five centuries worth of biblical revisions, you set your standards higher and maintain them. Parochial schools aren’t perfect, but isn’t it funny how some of the most successful people coming out of the South attended parochial schools even though they were Protestant. Ex. Joseph Scarborough host of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” Should it surprise anybody to eventually observe the diminished view towards maintaining a commonly held minimal standard of care for our fellow human beings, below which, no truly civilized and caring society would allow anybody to fall in to? Northern cities, no more than Southern cities cannot prevent every indigent person falling through the cracks. But at least, despite all the gruffiness you’ll back up there (as if from the “old country”) . . . we have far more extensively developed combinatons of complementary public and private agencies/networks designed to help our weakest and neediest. Smiling faces, soft-spoken drawls and down-homey mannerisms won’t put food in a kid’s or elderly person’s stomach if a longstanding social ethic based upon years of cooperation between local gov’t agencies, the religious communities and non-profit private organizations hasn’t been left to go to seed, or cleverly bumped out by bankers, lawyers, cliquey media elites and corporatists/They don this so they can point to the wreckages they helped to brin about and say, “See, gov’t and non-profits don’t work; trust us, the money making job creators ... we know how to turn an economy around. Just as well as they knew how to run it into the ground just when it looked like Obama was a shoo-in by Sept. 08 when the wrecking ball began swinging. Sometimes when I wonder why is this quarter of the nation still lagging when it comes to weeding out its old padrone/plantation exploitation mentality? Maybe it never will. Perhaps the reasons are theological in origin. Outside of MO, and PA, with some other states out west, what area has created for itself the sordid mess of a regional swath of puppy mill empires? After all, it’s not a great leap to go from finding all sorts of justifications to excuse the treatment of animals, dogs in particular, as DAWGS, all because they are said to have no soul. Really? Just examine the level of unconditional love and trust a dog places in his or her owner, presuming all went well during the adoption. (Avoid pups sold in stores! Pet stores are enablers.) Cats and horses come close, but dogs top ‘em all. I used to think Southerners, especially the guys, were inseparable from dogs. Ah, but if the push of the capitalist dogs’ tails happen to be longer, should it surprise anybody to find himself treated like one by his boss in both public and private sectors? Maybe it’s the plantation mentality that allows such brutes to wield their power in ways down there nobody would dare think of trying to pull. Oh, well, maybe unions might’ve had some role to play in reducing the antic of abusive bosses ever closer to nil. The bossman and his backers in the banks, Chamber of Commerce, courthouses, etc. make sure their checkbook’s always open for conducting some lessons. Let me finish by putting a “theological touch” to this post by quoting St. Francis of Assissi: “If you have men who will exclude any of God’s creatures from the shelter of compassion and pity, you will have men who will deal likewise with their fellow men.” Yeah, the old “Bible tells us so” that animals have no soul, y’know, so if a dog gets kicked around or stomped on in a puppy mill, he’ still just a dawg, right?” Even Bible Belters needs a lesson or two, and getting one like the above from St. Francis wouldn’t hurt, esp. given the influence his order’s had in making Catholcism more acceptable these days down here. Let’s see just how much of an influence it really has. Because there’s still a hell of a lot of rescue convoys on the roads now or in the plannng stages.

Posted by Susan Fox on Friday, May, 17, 2013 11:32 PM (EST):

Steven, I can’t figure out what you are saying. I truly don’t understand. How am I booting you? I told you I agreed the south shouldn’t get federal money. Neither should the north. Where am I criticizing you? What point are you trying to make? Please explain. God bless you. Susan Fox http://christsfaithfulwitness.blogspot.com

Posted by Steven Barrett on Friday, May, 17, 2013 12:10 PM (EST):

Susan, thank you for taking the time and effort to reply; but I’m going to say like Luther in Worms, here I stand and I won’t budge an inch, not on this thread, not on those highways you feel our federal taxes should be used to pay for or the military bases I was fortunately blessed to have been raised on during most of my childhood years. Yes, I’m biased; but my biases are based on supporting what has worked to benefit as many people as possible, regardless of their faith, because while we are free to practice our Catholic faith, we do not have any rights to impose our restrictions we willingly take as Catholics, on non-Catholics. Now, if that’s going to get me excommunicated, well, I’ll have to live with it. But I’ll be damned if I get any boot from any judgmental layperson instead of a legitimate authority within the Church. Go ahead and try to get me booted. You can’t and you know it. So why judge me and others like me?

Posted by Alicia Nguyen on Friday, May, 17, 2013 11:01 AM (EST):

After reading this, I feel like wanting to move to the South, God Bless.

Posted by Jinny on Friday, May, 17, 2013 10:03 AM (EST):

I love my faith and the Catholic Church. I being a convert and a true southern just came into the Catholic Church this past Holy Saturday Easter Vigil. It is good news indeed to read about the growth of the Catholic Church. May we all continue in southern hospitality to share the good news of Christ with all we meet. God Bless

Posted by Susan Fox on Wednesday, May, 15, 2013 3:05 PM (EST):

Dear Mr. Barrett,
I was responding to those on this blog who were complaining that if Catholicism moved into the South it would ruin the politics there. My definition of “real” Catholic is anyone who follows the Magesterium of the Roman Catholic Church. That’s not judgmental. That’s simply a definition of fact. Obviously women who say Mass are not doing so. The other things I listed in my post actually occurred in Washington State. But they were abuses—not real Catholicism. Is that what you think is real Catholicism? Serving unconsecrated hosts during Sunday Mass, putting the tabernacle in a closet? I hope not. I have no experience of any state in New England except my husband came from Baltimore and saw the same lousey Catholicism ruin Maryland that ruined Washington State. In my experience the states with liberal politics (abortion, free contraception, high taxes (but not not always), homosexual marriage or civil unions, legal marijuana use, a false sense of serving the poor) have had a history of liberal Catholicism, that is they have not followed the Magesterium of the Roman Catholic Church in their sermons, their pastors, their lay leaders, often in their bishops. Now you are correct that Washington State does not have an income tax. But it has a very high property tax, high housing costs. And at the center of the state’s liberalism (Seattle) no “poor” person could afford to buy a home. My point was that lousy Catholicism creates liberal states. Real Catholicism will not. My poor elderly cousin in Washington State was crying to me that he could smoke dope, commit legal suicide and marry a man now in that state. That is the result of 40 years of mostly liberal Catholicism there. I have no idea what will happen in the South. But I was simply cautioning the pessimists on this blog that Catholics loyal to the Magesterium do not create liberal politics. They find that Catholics who attend Mass on Sunday tend to vote more conservatively, while those that don’t are the ones who vote liberal. The less a Catholic knows his faith the more likely he is to vote for someone like Obama.
Regarding the South getting federal money, I have absolutely no knowledge of this issue, and no opinion. I guess I would prefer no state get federal money especially not for education as I don’t want the federal government to have any say in public education, nor any say in my health care. Also I don’t want to pay taxes so any state can get any money from the federal government. In my opinion, the only thing the federal government should be spending its money on is roads and the military. I actually want the federal government out of Catholic Charity because I have seen first hand this causes the local Church to abandon its principles. I have evangelized door to door in communities where I have found people who received massive help for years from the local Catholic Church and Catholic Charities, but they have never been invited to the real Treasure, the Mass, the Holy Eucharist. Why? because the local Catholic Church accepts federal money and thinks they won’t get it any more if they mention the word, “God.” Once, my family put flyers on the cars parked at Mass as well as cars parked at Protestant Churches that were pro-life. We did not put flyers on any cars on any Protestant Churches that were known to be pro-abortion. The flyers stated this candidate is pro-life. This candidate is not. It did not say who to vote for. My pre-teen son was the one who wanted to be involved in this pro-life apostolate. So my husband went with him. They leafleted the 9 a.m. Mass, but the Democrats in the parish reported them so that when they arrived at the 11 a.m. Mass our pastor publicly tore my husband apart and shouted at my pre-teen son. The crux of his fear is that he would lose the Church’s tax exempt status for having leaflets that he was unaware of put on cars in his parking lot that identified which candidate was pro-life and which wasn’t. Do you realize 54 million Americans will never get hugged by their mommies. They will never shop at Dillards, never pay taxes on April 15, never buy a car, never have the chance to graduate from your precious universities and public schools, never meet a girl (or boy), get married, live to old age or die young by accident. They will never ever have the chance to live at all because they have been murdered in an legal abortion by their own family member! And our government, which guarantees every one the right to LIFE, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, agreed to this slaughter. Yet a Catholic pastor cannot abide a leaflet that states which candidate is pro-life and which wasn’t because he was worried about money that was given to his parish. The money didn’t even belong to him. I say let the whole Catholic Church lose its tax exempt status! We have become collaborators with a wicked regime. Can you imagine a Catholic pastor shouting at a parishioner who leafleted people at his parish in Nazi Germany identifying who favored exterminating Jews and who didn’t when they still had a choice of who to vote for (before the dictator took over)?

Do you come from a state in New England with excellent public schools and excellent universities? I’m actually very anti-public education, and the only universities I respect are ones like Ave Maria University, Christendom, Thomas Acquinas, graduate schools like Augustine Institute. My son was in Catholic school. We took him out in 4th grade, and the only thing he knew was Jesus means love. (he was completely ignorant of his faith) We home-schooled him, allowed him to take math and science at the local community college in high school. He finished high school with 34 college credits and went to Ave Maria University on scholarship. Unfortunately, my godson stayed in public school, and never went to college, lost his faith, got married, got divorced, now shacking up. There is no happiness in that life. I remember trying to tell him how many millions of people died in abortion and he told me how many whales died. He was only a little boy, but he’d already been brain washed by your “excellent public school.” I think the public school system needs less money. We gave my son an excellent Catholic education, but it cost very little. We got together with other home schooling families and provided classes in things we couldn’t teach like Spanish and Latin, as well as creating groups where the kids could socialize. We never burdened any state with the cost of our son’s education.
I have a hard time following your post (I think you had a hard time following mine as well as you completely missed my point) but if you are saying that the South is getting a bunch of federal money and therefore an unfair tax advantage, I don’t think that’s a conservative issue at all. That sounds very liberal to me. And I apologize to you for the abuses of our government. We must pray for those who create these injustices. My only point in my post is that as the local Catholic Church goes so does the country.

@Susan Fox: Excuse me, Ms. Fox, who appointed you as judge of what makes for a real Catholic here in the US? The last time I checked, women weren’t being ordained (yet) and most likely won’t be ordained for possibly 25-50 years from now, if ever. Right off the bat, you’re off to a very questionable start if you’re trying to establish bona fides, credentials and as they say in that other Famiglia, “make your bones.” (Sorry, stepping on the toes of people you’d just as soon imperiously ignore, yet feel compelled to “instruct” won’t establish your bones as having been made.
As for your opening salvo linking liberal catholics with raising higher taxes, that has to be one of the most far-sweeping and ridiculous assertions I’ve come across in quite a while. Let me guess what state your really had in mind. I’ll bet it’s smack in the middle of New England, completely straddles the Connecticut River in its westernmost counties and its politics is no longer dominated by a certain family living on Cape Cod. BTW, it’s kept its state income tax down and while it’s unfortunate that its sales taxes rose a little during the past decade, the increase is nothing like the routine gouging of residents in many Dixiefried Sunbelt taxpayers. Oh, their guv’s won’t touch the income tax to keep their state in the black, but whenever they can, guess where they find the easiest targets to rob the poor to make sure their wealthy and respective states’ business development bureaus aren’t burdened with having to explain rising taxes, except for those sales taxes that’ll be slammed down the throats and into the wallets of their working poor and minorities. Property taxes can be higher up here, but by and large, we know the tradeoff is worth it considering how many well-educated Americans our local public schools, not to mention our excellent public universities have produced. Yes, Susan, the conservatives have a valid point when they point out the fallacy of a “free lunch.” It’s just too bad they’ve rigged the tax codes in so many states (thanks to their friends in the American Legislative Exchange Council, which has done wonders to guarantee a near permanent nationally Gerrymandered House of Representatives to make sure “Red States,” especially those “low tax” and Southern States get more than their fair share of federal funding from DC. Care to engage in more judging exercises? I wonder what the Bible and Magisterium have to say about Gerrymandering so a select few states can, through their pals in ALEC, er Confederacy-Minded-Looting-Exchange-Claque, get off relatively scott free in their endeavors to prove what great regional welfare queens they’ve become.

Posted by Edward Hood on Wednesday, May, 15, 2013 11:40 AM (EST):

As for your anscestors being pleased with you when you got confirmed, I’m sure they were. I have a related story: On my journey, when I had fallen from my path and had stopped going to church, I was sitting on my porch two winters ago in the middle of the night, and my very nice but alcoholic neighbor wandered up to me black out drunk, just hammered, and with an indomitable sense of purpose she struggled her way through 4 ft of snow to get to me. When she reached me she declared that she could see my ancestors around me, mad and disappointed, and that they wanted her to slap me. Which she did with all her strength, and then staggered off and waded through the snow again, with no other explanation. It was quite an experience for me. She doesn’t remember doing that to this day. Thank you Trina, for doing that, if youre reading this.

In Knoxville, I rediscovered my Catholic roots. I fell in love with Jesus and His Church.

This article hit the proverbial nail on the head. As a northern transplant to East TN, I found an authenticity with my faith and it has created an unquenchable thirst for evangelization…a generally acknowledged “no-no” where I grew up in New England.

God is so good, especially when we take the time to be a purposeful disciple, rather than a Sunday believer.

Glory to God in the highest and peace to His people on earth!

Posted by Steven Barrett on Tuesday, May, 14, 2013 7:41 PM (EST):

Theo, when was the last time you cracked open a book about the Civil War, what led up to it, not to mention how the white establishment in all the former Confederate states pulled with Jim Crow laws when Union troops were pulled out? I can’t believe I read this in a national Catholic blog: “Perhaps something in the DNA of Johnny Reb will help the church buck this trend.” Sounds like your parish would rather listen to Hank Jr.‘s drivel than Panis Angelicus during Masses. If so, you might as well crack open a can of Billy Beer, or a bottle of Boone’s Farm or Thunderbird and even that swill called Jack Daniels, so I can wail, “If Heaven’s a lot like Dixie, hell no I won’t go.” Just kidding, I want to make it to the Promised Land, but the thought of Heaven looking close to South of the Border . . . that’s a bit much.

Posted by Susan Fox on Tuesday, May, 14, 2013 4:34 PM (EST):

Maggie McC: I think your ancestors did rejoice when you joined the Church! And I rejoice with them. You are a very sweet and loving Catholic. I’m Norweigian, a child of a Norweigian convert, and Sigrid Undset wrote about the difference that Catholicism made to the Nordic peoples. We were basically thieves! We earned our living by stealing, but Catholicism changed all that. Then those wretched kings did just rip the faith away from people. I weep when I think of those poor English Catholics who had the bodies of their incorruptibles hacked up, priests executed and driven out of the country. They had their churches painted with the words, “The Eucharist is a symbol. It is not the Body and Blood of Christ.” And finally when the Catholic priesthood is gone, so is the Eucharist. What suffering to be without Our Lord. That’s why the whole sex abuse scandal, priests marrying and leaving the Church in the ‘60s had one diabolical end—prevent the people from receiving the Eucharist! Jesus in the Eucharist must be of such surpassing value to our lives that Satan would do anything to destroy our relationship with Christ in the Mass and the Eucharist. In China the government has tried to do the same thing—separate the people from the Mass validly celebrated. But apparently Catholicism is growing rapidly in the north. How wonderful it is spreading rapidly in the Southern United States. I thank God. God bless you. Susan Fox http://christsfaithfulwitness.blogspot.com or www.YouTube.com, Channel TestisFidelis

Posted by Kenny on Tuesday, May, 14, 2013 3:34 PM (EST):

From reading these posts, it seems that the culture of the south has improved the manner in which Catholics practice and live their faith down there.

And for those southern Catholics, tell me. Do the Catholics in the south attend mass dressed like slobs like they do up here in the the north and east. Or have they adopted the Protestant custom of dressing respectfully———suits, jackets/ties, dresses, etc.?

Posted by Aunt Raven on Tuesday, May, 14, 2013 2:55 PM (EST):

It is a mystery of the Holy Spirit that that the precursor of the Anglican Ordinariate—the Pastoral Provision & the Anglican Use liturgy—began in Texas, of all places! (as in, “can anything good come out of Nazareth—pardon, Texas—?”) The Anglican Use was a 25-year experiment watched closely by the Vatican for fruits which would validate this “new song” of the Paraclete. Nobody expected that the AU parishes would bring a wave of lapsed Catholics back into the fold, but it has and continues doing so; or that there would be an astonishing crop of large young families who would produce young adults eager to try vocations to the priesthood and religious life; but that also is happening. It is I think no coincidence that the American Southwest, long needing a Cardinal, finally got the dynamic Cardinal Daniel DiNardo in Houston Texas; and that he enthusiastically encouraged the AU and later the Anglican Ordinariate, giving it its Primary Church in Houston ( the lovely Church and Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham) and the soon-to-be-built seminary and chancery on property next to it.

Posted by May on Tuesday, May, 14, 2013 1:35 PM (EST):

I am a Yankee by birth but a have lived in the South by choice for 40 years. What a blessing it has been. My small Catholic parish is loving and friendly. Interestingly, most were transplants decades ago when we moved here, but with time and the birth of a new generation and MANY conversions, that has changed. We have small diocese and a Eucharistic Congress every year so yes, the presence of Catholicism is growing. BTW, my oldest son went to work in Boston after college about 12 years ago. He didn’t like it and came back in a year saying, Northerners are just not very friendly. I told him it is a different culture and they are friendly but consider it rude to speak to strangers. Having grown up in New England, I believe that is true. But who knows, maybe they are just unfriendly antisocial people!!! I hope not. But the Catholic presence in the South is growing and we are all so blessed by it.

Posted by Blake on Tuesday, May, 14, 2013 12:13 PM (EST):

Aren’t Southern Catholics more conservative and Northern ones more liberal? I think so. 50% of Catholics vote liberal pro choice issues which is not Catholic. Those are blue state Catholics by and large. Obama has taken advantage of this “split” and has been successful in splitting the Church even more. Just seems to me that the Church is faring better in areas that believe in Catholic values like pro life, conservative ideas on marriage etc etc. Just sayin.

Posted by Maggie McC on Tuesday, May, 14, 2013 2:13 AM (EST):

An odd, rather amusing addendum: when I was confirmed as Catholic, I had the strange sense that my ancestors who lived at the time when their faith was ripped from them by Reformations in their countries—some no doubt clung to it and were persecuted, even martyred—were rejoicing with me. I had come home. As our country is now beginning religious persecution, it may be I will have a similar experience. May I be as courageous as they were.

Posted by Maggie McC on Tuesday, May, 14, 2013 2:03 AM (EST):

Born and raised in the South, I was always surrounded by Protestant believers, though not in my family. It was dear Mmother Angelica, who fulfilled a vow to plant a Catholic Church-and later, monastery, who brought me into the wonderful, beautiful Catholic Church. I saw purity and goodness in the faces of those on her programs that impressed me, even more than their words. Having studied different religions all my life, I went more deeply into the history of Catholicism and that did it. As an older adult, I entered the Church and have loved it for 15 years. My heart goes out to lapsed Catholics who simply don’t know what a treasure they had and I pray for their return. I think just reading Luther’s writings—virulently anti-Semitic and saying once saved, always saved (he wrote that he Coukd commit adultery and murder 1000 times a day and still be saved) would send a Protestant running into the arms of the Catholic Church. It believes that if you indeed have faith, you will strive to be more like Jesus, not count on salvation because you once said the sinner’s prayer. It believes in repentance, forgiveness, and charity, reaching out to treat others as you would treat Jesus Himself. Of course, many non-Catholics do this, glory toGod, but how much easier it is when you receive the actual body and blood of Jesus (John 6) to help you. So at the heart of Catholicism is the Eucharist. I would give up anything to be able to receive the Host and feel it’s effects in my life. I love the Latin Mass and only wish it were available more often. And I pray that those, like our politicians who do not live their faith, will come to their senses before receiving it. God bless the growth in the South and may He bring the blinded Catholics to true repentance and return to the fold.

Posted by Susan Fox on Monday, May, 13, 2013 10:54 PM (EST):

REAL Catholicism moving into the South is not going to create liberal high tax states! The centers of Catholicism in the Northeast, Chicago area, and I should add the Northwest (Oregon and Washington are both legal suicide states. Washington has gay marriage and marijuana) lost their Catholic faith, and it was replaced with dissident Catholicism—love the poor, vote for Obama. I know I fought the tide for 12 years in Washington State. We suffered in a parish with no statues, a female body on the crucifix, ex-priests and nuns giving the homily at Mass, unconsecrated hosts mixed with consecrated hosts during Communion because poorly-trained altar girls forgot to bring up the hosts before the consecration, other parishes had a feminist creed instead of the Apostle’s Creed, people pouring consecrated wine (the Blood of Christ) into potted plants, the tabernacle in a broom closet next to the broom, one of our parishes had to “obey” a spurious document from the National Conference of Catholic Bishops called “Art and Environment” and so they moved the tabernacle from the center of the Church to the side. They said the tabernacle was “too distracting” during Mass, so they replaced it with the choir—overweight middled aged women with extremely short skirts shaking their you know what. My husband said he was never so distracted by the tabernacle as he was by the immodest choir behind the altar during Mass. Other places in Washington and Oregon had nuns saying Mass. My husband came from Baltimore and suffered all this stuff back in the ‘60s and ‘70s. Then he moved West to Washington in the ‘90s and had to suffer it all over again. He can’t believe that no one learns that this stuff doesn’t work, doesn’t convert people, doesn’t bring them into the Church, it just plain creates heretics who don’t go to confession, use birth control and receive communion every Sunday. Of course, this creates a guilt ridden liberal state. “Help the poor! because I’m using birth control, killing my own child thereby, and soon I’ll be divorced. I want to dump my wife and kids so I better help the poor.” I’m in Colorado now, and we have a house and senate full of Democrats plus a Democrat for governor so we have legal marijuana. They have legalized civil unions, plus we—in a state full of outdoorsmen and hunters—have the most restrictive gun control law in the Union. But guess what! We also have a secret horror. We apparently had a beautiful system of caring for handicapped and mentally disadvantaged children, but under this Democratic governor, Democratic legislature these kids are being dumped from the system. One of their former nurses told me that most of the most vulnerable children don’t live two months once they are removed from the state’s care. One lady was complaining to me about the poor children being dumped from the state system, and I looked at her and said, “Here we have a Democrat governor, a Democrat legislature. Democrats always say they care about the poor children, but look what they are doing!” She must have been a Democrat because she shut up right away and didn’t talk to me anymore. But Colorado does have devout, very orthodox Catholic parishes. The problem is that a lot of mothers dropping their children off for Catholic school have Obama stickers on their vehicles. I don’t know how they can’t understand that their Catholic faith completely would preclude voting for the most pro-abortion president in American history. But I’m slowly beginning to realize our Catholic bishops are still supporting Obama care—just not the part where they have to pay for contraception and abortion. Obamacare is stealth euthanasia because the best way to reduce medical costs is to kill the sick by refusing them medical care. It happened in Oregon! And in Washington State—even before they got suicide legalized I can’t tell you how many times they tried to kill my mother out of kindness, and I had to fight them. In that state during the ‘90s even the Church collaborated because they didn’t provide priests to give the sacrament of the sick at the end of life. I had to call the bishops office to get my mother Extreme Unction before she died. My husband says even if a bishop takes the right stand on these issues, he doesn’t understand that most of his parish priests, the laity who work for the archdiocese, teach RCIA, paid lay parish ministers and Catholic university professors basically don’t agree with him, and will teach the opposite every chance they get. The bishops need to strike the word “Catholic” from many of our universities, openly and publicly excommunicate Catholic politicians who support abortion, fire most of their staff and reeducate their priests before its too late and we’ve lost the soul of Catholic America. Nice little private chats with pro-abortion Catholic politicians, and telling them privately not to go to communion is totally useless to deal with the extremely public scandal of Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi, Ted Kennedy, Kathleen Sebelius, John Kerry, Maria Cantwell.
We got a new orthodox
Roman Catholic pastor in a small community in Washington State in the ‘90s. He moved into a very liberally-run parish. So he called a staff meeting, outlined exactly what he was planning to do, and asked them if they could support him. They were so used to making decisions without the pastor, they said no, they couldn’t support him in these plans. They thought Father would back off, but he said he was very sorry for their decision, but he hoped they’d continue to work for him for two more weeks until he found their replacements! He fired the whole lot of them. That’s what the bishops should do. Go in and clean house! Wake up! Our Lord is taking the lamp stand from some local churches in America. God bless you. Susan Fox http://christsfaithfulwitness.blogspot.com or catch me at http://www.YouTube.com chann,el TestisFidelis

Posted by Tony on Monday, May, 13, 2013 9:10 PM (EST):

It’s good to hear the church is growing in a region which has historically been anything but spiritually diverse.

Posted by TG on Monday, May, 13, 2013 8:47 PM (EST):

I live in Central Texas and we have many small community Catholic Churches within a few miles of each other, some in communites that aren’t even small towns. The only thing we don’t have much in the Diocese of Austin is the Latin Mass - it’s in Austin which is too far from where I live. I also wish we would a FSSP parish. One of the reasons we have so many Catholics here is because many Czech, Germans and Hispanices settled in this area and brought their Catholic faith. Thank God.

Posted by Anita on Monday, May, 13, 2013 8:35 PM (EST):

There was no mention of EWTN and Mother Angelica’s ministry in Alabama. Her goal back in the 60’s was to bring Catholicism to the South. EWTN is the largest, worldwide Catholic network and has converted, through its broadcast ministry, many souls, who might never have converted otherwise.

Posted by Domingo on Monday, May, 13, 2013 4:46 PM (EST):

Thanks, Ed, for the wonderful exposition on the parable of the ten virgins. I am from a Houston suburb and Catholics here are rejoicing! Our daily Masses are attended well—- be it in a Catholic Hospital or in an Adoration Chapel. All praises and thanksgiving be to God Who lavishes us with His graces!

Posted by KP on Monday, May, 13, 2013 3:31 PM (EST):

It seems to me whenever we get into a moral decline in the United States, God has a way of consistently bailing the country out by sending us a new wave of Catholics. During the turn of the last century, the Irish Catholics made their way here and in the 1980s we started receiving waves of Polish and other Soviet block Catholics, now we are receiving a wave Mexican and Latin Catholics. The Pew Research did a study and right now the Catholics make up roughly 25% of the population or 65 Million that is expected to reach 100 million by 2030 which isnâ€™t so far away but it is increasing because of Latin American Catholics. This country had a very staunch Protestant background and anti-Catholic beginning but it is changing rapidly. They said you would be hard pressed to find a Catholic mayor of New York or Governor a hundred years ago but you wouldnâ€™t think twice about it now that traditional names like Smith and Williams are still strong but creeping in getting replaced by Kelly and Murphy and are very quickly getting replaced with Garcia and Rodriguez. The good news is that new American Catholics tend to be more devout Catholics. Keeping them that way seems to be the stumbling block for us. It seems to and I could be really wrong and not using my brain but the United States is the only country to start off Protestant and not Catholic in the Western Hemisphere. Although one of my most favorite saints, Robert Bellarmine did create the idea of three separate but equal branches of government almost a 150 years before the American Revolution and the Church had an ancient teaching through Thomas Aquinas that all men are equal. I donâ€™t know if it was by design or a coincidence but the Constitution was signed on Bellarmineâ€™s feast day.

Posted by Bibbit on Monday, May, 13, 2013 8:21 AM (EST):

Stephanie: I am from the same state as the author, that being RI. I am sorry to tell you that what you suggest is being tried here and is failing. I attend a parish in the northern part of the state which celebrates the EF regularly. The priest is a man who loves the EF, and the choir is as wonderful as it gets. But attendance was never all that good, and is now quite poor. I love the EF (as well as a reverently celebrated OF), but it is not the cure so many wish it to be. Certainly the EF is not in and of itself the cure.

Posted by ANNE on Monday, May, 13, 2013 6:59 AM (EST):

We must follow the example of our Protestant brothers by reading - (in our case) a Catholic BIBLE (starting with the New Testament).
We must adhere to all Church teachings which are included in the “CATECHISM of the CATHOLIC CHURCH, Second Edition”.
Give Bibles and CCCs as gifts.
Accurately learn and teach the Faith. Help save Souls.

Posted by Edward Hood on Monday, May, 13, 2013 1:09 AM (EST):

Yes! And we need more! With 8 others from my RCIA I just converted and was accepted into the church and confirmed at the Easter Vigil. It was almost overwhelming when the priest called down the Holy Spirit into us. The whole mass was the most *amazing* experience I have ever had (I wish every Sunday was the Easter Vigil!). I came to the Church after 7 years of deliberation and running, and to me it seems extremely important to note that it would have only taken ONE PERSON to push me over the edge to be here sooner. Despite knowing many Catholics, none of them filled that role. It finally happened in the person of an unwitting muslim. I donâ€™t think that happens to people very often. We need to bear witness more, because sometimes all it takes is one person saying one thing once, but it much better if many people say one thing many times!
It is wonderful being Catholic and being in the church, but it is sad how many Catholics don’t know about their faith, especially, I have noticed, the ones from the North or other culturally Catholic places. I now live on the edge of Northern Virginia where there are many yankees, and the difference in formation is striking. In the South we are less “politically correct” and are prone to talk about our faiths openly (Praise be to God for that!), and Catholics have the opportunity to engage with people and account for their faith more often whether they like it or not, which keeps us honest. The “cultural Catholic” pressure for non-latinos is almost non-existent here and there is a residual anti-Catholic sentiment, so there are less lukewarm believers here, which, combined with what is available on the internet and in the catechism to augment what the Church often sadly lacks in parish-level formation, has resulted in an increase in the faith of the Faithful here. At my campus parish I have not met one person who does not embrace all of the teachings of the church, which is wonderful and unique compared to all of the other places I have lived. And yet, amongst the laity generally, there is still a reluctance for some reason to learn the scriptures and traditions of the Church, pray, preach, serve others, and tithe. Doing any one of these increases the others, so if one is easier for you than the others, start with that and strive in earnest to do the others. We must all strive to be Saints, and we are all called to be missionaries by our baptism. There is no place in America where there is not a need for this, and so many Christians have bought into the politically correct rationalization of multiculturalist silence, lest anyone be offended or something. Well, Christ has news for you. He said that people would be offended, and that they will persecute you; they certainly persecuted Him. For now, in America we are blessed to have both freedom of religion, and freedom of speech, so there is really not any reason not to use both of them. Someday I imagine, we will lose those freedoms, and that day will come sooner if we donâ€™t exercise the freedoms we have today. When that day comes if you havenâ€™t been practicing now while it is easy, you will certainly have a harder time when it comes with a greater price.
Increase in faith and bear witness to what you have! Remember the parable of the virgins and their lamps! The lamps stand for faithâ€”they all had it, and all five of the virgins were pureâ€”but 5 of them did not have the light of God with them (the lamp’s flame), because the fruits of their good deeds (the oil for their lamps) had burned away because of their negligent selfishness. The oil had run out because they had fallen asleep and neglected to trim their wicks, that is, for their own comfort they neglected to vigilantly maintain the faith that they had, trimming their excess/denying their selfishness, while they waited for the bridegroom (Christ) to return. When he approached, they saw their inadequacy and begged the others for some of their oil, but, as it is impossible for one to give holiness to another, but only to inspire it, the other virgins could not give them what they had, only tell them to go and buy more, which is how they got the oil they had in the first place. That is, they bought it by doing everything they were supposed to do (everything Christ taught), but it was too late for them, and the bridegroom did not let them in to the wedding feast, and said that He did not even know them. For you, your vigil waiting for the bridegroom will last until He comes at the end, or until you die, which is your end, and either could come at any moment. You know this to be true.
Brothers and sisters please please don’t be the foolish ones! Pray for the gifts of the Holy Spirit now and go into the market where the people are and preach and serve the poor. Do every good thing that is asked of us by our Lord! For that is how we get the oil we need for our lamps. As Catholics we know that we are not saved by faith alone. Faith suggests works, and works can suggest faith, just as a lamp suggests oil and oil can suggest a lamp. The lamp itself does not give light; it does not get us in the door. To do that we must remain in light always that we might be in light when our waiting is over. Likewise, oil without a lamp cannot be storedâ€”without a vessel it spreads thin and when lit it can flare up, but it burns out quickly, though it can light the lamp of another or inspire one to obtain a lamp for oneself. A wick when lit will burn, but if not immersed in oil, it will go out, and if it doesn’t burn away to ashes completely the first time, with repeated lightings it will eventually burn away completely, rendering the lamp useless.
A broken lamp leaks oil, or smothers the flame, or clogs up with soot eventually, and then gives off no light. We must have a lamp that is whole. We must know what to do with our lamps. If one has a leaky lamp, either because it was broken in one’s care or because it came broken, it can burn those around it, making them reject itâ€™s light and future lamps they encounter, either all lamps altogether, or just lamps that look similar. Or if someone sees a broken lamp they will wonder what good it is, for it does not contain oil. Do not drive others away because your faith is defective! The faith that we have been given is not a broken or incomplete faith, it is whole. We must know how to use it and know how to recognize what the differences are between that which is whole, that which is broken, and that which is incomplete so that we can both save ourselves and teach others that they may be saved.
So please, remember this parable. And act accordingly. With the lamp AND the oil AND the vigilance of trimming our wicks we will be able to walk always in light, and others in the darkness of this world will flock to us and we will be able to help them do the same!

Peace,
Ed

Posted by Isabelle101 on Sunday, May, 12, 2013 8:59 PM (EST):

Stephanie, We started a Traditional Latin Rite Parish in Huntsville Alabama under the Diocese of Birmingham. We are so blessed down here!

Posted by savvy on Sunday, May, 12, 2013 3:28 PM (EST):

Theo,

You are right that cultural Catholicism. When you stop being Irish, Italian, or Poles, you also stop being Catholic, in this case. This is something that needs to be addressed. We need to give people a relationship with Christ and his church, not just a community, they can belong too.

Posted by Kenny on Sunday, May, 12, 2013 2:48 PM (EST):

Fred is exactly correct when he writes: “God save the God-fearing South from the sleaze of Catholicismâ€™s ascendancy. Yes, Iâ€™m an orthodox Roman Catholic, but after a lifetime in Chicago, where we are a minuscule minority within our own Church, the dominance of modern Catholicism is not generally a good thing.”

Much of what is considered the Catholic Church is rotten to its core, and that includes the clergy and church leadership. That is why the states with the highest percent of Catholics tend to be the most decadent (or liberal if you will. The Catholic states lead the parade in terms of being pro-abortion, pro-homosexual marriage, tolerant of premarital sex and pron.

Maybe the Protestant south, by its example, can teach Catholics how to follow their faith.

Posted by Mary on Sunday, May, 12, 2013 2:14 PM (EST):

this is great news, I wish it could happen the same here in California where I have found a lot of cafeteria catholics that approve abortion and same sex marriage.

Posted by Fr. Paul Williams on Sunday, May, 12, 2013 12:42 PM (EST):

“Hispanic immigration is still a factor in regional growth, but it is mentioned more as a secondary contributor than as the leading cause.”

There are now more Hispanics in The Archdiocese of Atlanta than Whites. Almost 80% of future growth is projected to be Hispanic.

In my parish, we baptize more than 600 children each year, 95% are Hispanic. We just finished celebrating 500 First Communions, all but 25 Hispanic.

I think it’s fair to say that the article understates the impact of Hispanics in North Georgia. The growth among whites is primarily demographic: northerners moving south and Floridians moving halfway back.

Cindy,
Sorry to say this but one doesn’t work for pay in the Catholic Church but volunteers. If a salaried job does exist it pays barely enough to cover the bills. I would suggest that you make Special Education your day job in the local public school system & volunteer to catechize adult & children in your local parish the rest of the time. Good luck & God bless!

Posted by Theo on Sunday, May, 12, 2013 10:33 AM (EST):

Joanne makes an excellent point. I’d only add this: Traditionally the Catholic Church in America has a very difficult time retaining active members beyond two or three generations. The Church has relied on a steady stream of immigrants from ireland, italy, and other Catholic countries to keep the pews filled. A big part of the southern fried Catholic Boom is due to the influx of Mexican And South American immigrants.

That’s what happened here in the north. 75 years ago Boston, Rhode Island. New York etc were just like the booming parishes of the South. Now the descendants of those people do not go near the Catholic Church. Perhaps something in the DNA of Johnny Reb will help the church buck this trend.

Posted by Sean on Sunday, May, 12, 2013 10:33 AM (EST):

Evangilization or borderless immigration? Big difference.

Posted by Theresa on Sunday, May, 12, 2013 8:10 AM (EST):

According to an article in our local newspaper, Catholucs in Houston outnumber Southern Baptist growing up I remember being one of 3 catholics in our high school Christian Student Union. Believe me, at a young age you had to quickly learn the faith to defend it against a strong Baptist presence. My children didn’t have to go through that.. Our annual diocesan youth conference is teeming with youth.

Posted by BARBARA QUATTRO on Sunday, May, 12, 2013 6:14 AM (EST):

I live in a small but growing town in Florida, moved here from Maryland. I see a lot of “snowbirds” who spend winter months and help fill our Catholic churches to capacity every Sunday(5-6 Masses). I wonder if they take their love for their faith north for the summer. We all need to stay active in our churches, get involved in ministries, join or start bible study classes. Talk to a stranger each week and make them friends. Every one wants to feel at home & loved in their parish. Say hello when you see them out in the community. What better place to have friends than those brought to you by the love of Jesus? Some say they don’t get anything from church. Maybe they just need someone to reach out. I feel afraid of creeping liberalism coming from the north, let’s not allow it to happen. God has planted the beautiful seed of faith, it’s up to us to water and nourish it, pass it on to our children, and make it a part of our lives. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.

Posted by Ike Eslao on Sunday, May, 12, 2013 12:31 AM (EST):

Most Protestants are joining Catholicism out of deeper understanding of their Christian faith. Ironically, most Catholics leaving their church do so out of ignorance of their faith.

Posted by Fred on Sunday, May, 12, 2013 12:15 AM (EST):

What a horrible blow to the few pro-life and low tax states left in America if the South becomes dominated by Catholics. Look to the Northeast and Midwest where states dominated by Catholics are always dominated by the most liberal, pro-death, corrupt tax hacks. Haven’t we had enough Senators Kennedy,Kerry,Durbin, Leahy (to name a few)? Or Govenors Quinn, Cuomo, or Ryan (to name a few). Or crooked Catholic political machines like Chicago’s or Tammeny Hall? God save the God-fearing South from the sleaze of Catholicism’s ascendancy. Yes, I’m an orthodox Roman Catholic, but after a lifetime in Chicago, where we are a miniscule minority within our own Church, the dominance of modern Catholicism is not generally a good thing.

Posted by Susan Fox on Saturday, May, 11, 2013 10:42 PM (EST):

Liberalism flourishes in the Church in the Pacific Northwest, and New England. But we are more organically Catholic here in Colorado, though, and that means we are more conservative. I live in the most fantastic parish, St. Thomas More of Centennial. Our pastor allowed tiny crosses on the lawn in memory of all the Americans killed legally in the United States since 1973. It was a very moving sight. I’ve never been a member of such a pro-life parish. Why can’t all churches in the United States put tiny crosses on their lawns in memory of the 54 million Americans killed by abortion?
I went to an evangelization week in Iowa (Peregrancio Pro Christo for the Legion of Mary) in the 1990s, and we tried to attend daily Mass on the drive there from the Pacific Northwest, but while daily Mass was readily available the further east we went, we had a lot of communion services as we returned home West. IN the ‘90s daily Mass was less available in the West. Also people in the West are less religious. I was boarding a plane in the South sometime within the last ten years, and someone cut in front of me. I bowed and said, “Please go first as the first will be last, and the last shall be first.” About 25 people forced me to the front of the line! That moved me deeply as it meant they read the Bible and believed it. When my husband and I visited Louisiana in 2009, we were driving somewhere on the freeway Sunday morning. There was NO ONE on the road. Everyone was at Church. We found them later that day having Sunday brunch in their Sunday clothes. I am so glad that the faith is growing in the south it makes up for the loss of faith in the Northwest and Northeast. Like during the Protestant Reformation we lost millions of Catholics in Europe, but gained the same amount in Mexico because of Our Lady of Guadalupe. Liberalism does follow dissident Catholicism, but this form—not truly Catholic—will be dying out eventually—just like the Arians St. Monica’s time, they are all gone now. The true Church triumphed. God bless you. Susan Fox http://christsfaithfulwitness.blogspot.com or find me on http://www.YouTube.com at Channel TestisFidelis

Posted by Arthur Mattei on Saturday, May, 11, 2013 9:59 PM (EST):

Catholics in the north, my state of New Jersey being an excellent example, are so subjected to the politially correct, limousine liberal,
hypocritical leftist dominance that makes one ashamed to stand up for pro-life or against pornography. Catholics in the south are encouraged to be themselves and speak out for their faith because they are in an environment where Catholic values and teachings are not as readily subjected to ridicule or scorn.
Speaking of New Jersey, our state is the third most heavily Catholic state in the nation and the 5th worst in supporting pro-life issues. Need I say more?

Posted by Judy on Saturday, May, 11, 2013 8:48 PM (EST):

WHAT A JOY TO READ THIS - SOME GOOD NEWS FOR OUR BEAUTIFUL CHURCH

Posted by Matt on Saturday, May, 11, 2013 7:46 PM (EST):

I find it very interesting that deep in the heart of “bible belt” Virginia that Protestant folk are seeing the more traditional bible believing catholics. They’re seeing first hand the oldest Christian body on planet earth in action with core biblical teachings as explained by the early church fathers and espoused/preached by the Catholic Church for nearly 2000 years. And they love the traditions of the church. The old liturgy they love. Recently I visited the area in Virginia where the new SSPX seminary is being built. There is excitement in that area about traditional Catholicism. This is why I pray that Pope Francis will grant canonical status to the SSPX, after clarifying some issues which have risen with misinterpretation and misapplication of Council documents. They have the mind and zeal to forge ahead with the Church of Jesus Christ and to getting our church moving ahead again on the right road. There would be nothing wrong with a traditional latin liturgy right alongside a contemporary liturgy. Canon 1 in the vernacular would do wonders in the south for many of the population, and my guess is that it would not be long before many novus ordo Catholics (who have never experienced the Tradional Mass) would be drawn to love our ancient liturgies. O, tempora, o mores! We need a revival today! Last May I attended the installation Mass of Baltimore Archbishop William Lori. The Mass was absolutely beautiful as celebrated by the new archbishop, parts in English and some in Latin. Canon 1 was recited by the archbishop in English, and it was a most moving liturgical experience. The final blessing by the archbishop was given in Latin, and all the Catholics in the pews knew the responses, singing them in Latin, followed by the seasonal Marian anthem also sung by the entire congregation in Latin.
Again we need reevangelization, and in our southland the words are: WE NEED A REVIVAL TODAY!

Posted by Cindy on Saturday, May, 11, 2013 6:38 PM (EST):

So…who’s hiring? Working on my Master of Arts in Ministry at a major seminary; certified in R.C.I.A.; certified teacher in Special Education—but much prefer to teach the faith to adults and school-age children.

Posted by Diane on Saturday, May, 11, 2013 5:41 PM (EST):

The most profound lesson I leaned in my life was when I served on active duty in the operating room. As Dr benjamin Carson said: inside we are all the same. There is no south or north, black or white or any other color. It’ all what’s in the heart.This is not about physica circumcision but circumcision of the heart. He set the bar high , & the road we chooseto tske is even higher. But with God, all things are possible. If we could only remember, we do not have the mind of God. This what He asks of us & our answer is yes. Maybe one day we can get past our own shortsightedness.

Posted by Terah James on Saturday, May, 11, 2013 5:38 PM (EST):

The Bridegroom Jesus only has One church: One Bride of Christ. Its members are anyone that call Jesus their Lord and Savior, who follow Him, knowing His voice. Faith comes by hearing & hearing by “The word of God”.

I don’t know what a “faithful Protestant” is. But I do know many Protestants, in mainline denominations, have gone their own way, and are now apostate.

I am concerned that due to lack of sound teaching and preaching, too many Catholics have also gone their own way too, and are liberal, such as pointed out by Joanne S, as referenced with Rhode Island.

So Catholic priests need to take the opportunity to preach and teach the fullness of the New Testament Epistles, verse by verse, in an expository fashion, exposing God’s truths in context, so the Body of Christ can have a good impact on our communities, throughout the USA and the world.

If Catholic Christians do not have a godly impact on their communities, it makes no difference if Catholic numbers in parishes is growing by leaps and bounds, throughout the US, not just in the south. The key is this: how many of these people are citizens of Heaven?

I saw an elderly priest’s grave with this inscription, and it sounded like it may have been something he said in his homilies, in the old days:
Life is short.
Death is certain.
Hell is real.
Think about it.

Posted by Dan on Saturday, May, 11, 2013 5:34 PM (EST):

“Then when you see the same person that you have been shaking hands with treat you like they donâ€™t even know you when outside of the church.”

This is a difference between those form the north vs. south. I’m for the northeast and attended school there. A classmate from Mississippi told me that southerners were more friendly, folks up north seemed cold.

While taking a day hike along the Appalachian trail in Vermont, a thru-hiker from Chicago commented that town folks he encountered became less friendly the farther north he hiked along the trail.

Not to mean this generalization as a negative against us from the north. I have encountered similar difference while on business in Asia. For example, the Taiwanese are very friendly and outgoing. The Japanese-while helpful and nice—are much more reserved.

Posted by Emily on Saturday, May, 11, 2013 5:00 PM (EST):

Amen to the last line. “Hain believes that if Catholics in other areas were as open about their faith as Southerners are, there would be a resurgence in the Church.
â€śLetâ€™s worry less about offending others,â€ť Hain said. â€śLetâ€™s worry more about practicing our faith.”“

Posted by Gretta on Saturday, May, 11, 2013 4:43 PM (EST):

Although we have family in the Northeast, I must remind them that the first Archdiocese in the USA was Baltimore! We are Mid-Atlantic to far south for New England & NY and too far north for the Deep South. We love our Catholic heritage here and celebrate Mass with the loving and welcoming nature. It is exciting to hear of the Church expanding in the South and my hope is that the churches of the North will also have the opportunity to experience a rebirth and feel the power of the Holy Spirit and the family nature of a parish church like the one I belong to!

Posted by Steven Barrett on Saturday, May, 11, 2013 4:21 PM (EST):

Randy’s point about the “settlement history” is one of the most overlooked causes for the biggest remaining divide in American history. It shaped the direction of our founding fathers as they tried to forge a Constitution in the wake of Dan’l Shays Rebellion in 1786-87. And guess what issue, what seemingly intractable issue, was bubbling just below the very top issues of shaping the small-r republican outline of a hopefully much stronger national federal government: Slavery. States can still allow it to be practiced within their respective prison systems. And secesion was never a fully settled issue, 700,000 lives lost during the Civil War, notwithstanding. Nowadays we’re sort of reenacting old war(s) betwen the states through union-busting “open shop, ‘right to work’ laws that are very popular throughout the South, not to mention constant attempts to reinvent the treason of secession through taking up the Tenth Amendment to nullify even the slightest Federal attempts seen by the most die-hard advocates of the strictest libertarian takes on the Second Amendment. So now when I read of people expressing their delight to be Southern by “God’s grace,” I don’t know what to think about what they believe they’re thinking about—if they are giving this issue any real level of thinking at all.

Posted by Phyllis Poole on Saturday, May, 11, 2013 2:46 PM (EST):

I have a daughter in Arlington Tx. and the catholic churches there are emulating a protestant atmosphere. No altar, no statues, no tabernacle!
This is not what I call growing the right direction.
I have a home in Ky and lived there for two years. Catholics there are not growing in population. However, there was a priest there before I came who was making friends with all the protestants, bringing them in for mass on Sundays -AND GIVING THEM THE EUCHARIST COMMUNION! The next priest came just before I did. He did NOT make friends with protestants nor give them communion. However, one of the parishoners had a lutheran husband and the former priest gave him communion and she didn’t stop it! How catholic is a person who has had a catholic ed from the start and still doesn’t know her faith!?
We had better take look on how “catholic” all these parishes are that are growing. AND I am from northern Indiana. We are fostering seminarians because of beautiful parents. We also are not distant, but loving to anyone who wishes to be a part of us.
Better take a good look at WHY the south is “growing”!

Posted by Steven Barrett on Saturday, May, 11, 2013 1:41 PM (EST):

Good luck to all you latest members of the growing ranks of the rootless ones settling into the more southern-fried half of the nation’s Sunbelt. You’ll need it. Lots of it. Fellow Catholics; years back so many northerners, many Catholics, no doubt, were suckered into moving into the Sunbelt, FL in particular. Oh, things would be just dandy. Until the market crashed. And all of a sudden the kind of greedy self-centeredness produced by a combination of a severe crash, paranoia and political crassness, took hold and during one midterm election, the voters, most of them being non-Catholics, tossed out moderates, liberals and anybody who holds dear our Church’s teachings about the need for governmental safety nets to save thousands from losing far more than their shirts. And don’t let anybody talk you or your legitimate economic worries by citing Jesus words about the birds, or to pray hard and discern the times and messages coming from the crash and slow recovery. He also said we needed to be not only gentle as doves, but wise as snakes ... in this case, just to stay ahead of real economic snakes who get to work their nefarious deeds in a far more unregulated econ. environment that’s allowed to exist than in most other states. And for all the Bible-thumping, isn’t it odd that so many people who’ll size you up and down on your relationship with Jesus have embraced the economic morality of Ayn Rand. Caveat Catholics. Caveat.

Posted by Joanne S. on Saturday, May, 11, 2013 1:23 PM (EST):

I hope this is good rather than bad. Rhode Island is the most Catholic state in the Union and just voted to legalize gay “marriage.” Wherever Catholics dominate, liberalism flourishes! I pray I’m wrong on my concerns.

Posted by Randy Ward on Saturday, May, 11, 2013 1:01 PM (EST):

Population density has nothing to do with the difference between the north and the south. The population density of Minn. is low but they are still yankees. The population density of Atlanta is high but the people in Atlanta are still Southern to the core.

Southern people are as different from Northern people as Chinese are different from Japanese. The early settlement history of north and south is quite different.

Posted by Diane on Saturday, May, 11, 2013 12:00 PM (EST):

I grew up half my life in Savannah, Ga. My father was Catholic & momma was methodist. Her her mom with Baptist. Everyone on her side of the family was either baptist or methodist. Her mom gaveme my first Catholic Bible when I was 15 years old. I never knew direct or indrect pressure being a Catholic in a predominately protestant south. If anything, God took the blinders off & due to His grace, I came to value my faith as the precious pearl it is after a long hard road Though I don’t recommend the hard road, it lead me back to God. like the prodigal, I fell into His welcoming arms. He left the scars so He could use them as He chooses.

Posted by Kenny on Saturday, May, 11, 2013 11:22 AM (EST):

Let’s hope the Catholics in the South do not embarrass themselves by embracing liberalism as the ones in the north have.

I live in the Diocese of Duluth - in the great Northern Minnesota, and we have some dynamic parishes that are teaching the “truth” of our faith. I am a cradle Catholic and “love” the Catholic church and what she stands for. We, as the laity, have a huge responsiblity to be on fire for our faith in the Church. We need to support those that are staying true to Church teachings especially supporting the priests and religious. We need to evangelize and show that we love being Catholic and bring others to the truth of Jesus Christ in the Catholic Church

Posted by Steven Barrett on Saturday, May, 11, 2013 9:57 AM (EST):

LOLs on my tab. See what happens when a writer gets behind on his sleep before he sits before a keyboard where the letters have been pounded off before? Where did I get “infufferable” from, California’s Warner Bros. Studios? And I’ve never been out to So. California, nor have any inclination to do so save for visiting a nephew one day. (Once the thrill of living in Miami wore off, I couldn’t also help noticing on the idiot box how similar it resembled LA, only without mountains. When it comes to delusions, a lot of you carpetbagging winterbirds who’ve fallen for the lures of low taxes, that nice ever so sweet southern ambiance, and that “ever more relaxed lifestyle” on top of what you’re saying they’re offering for your spirit’s sake ... what’s to say you couldn’t find affordable towns, with much better tax rates so whatever you have to pay in terms of school taxes won’t seem like so much of a more relatively “unnecessary painful” chomp in case you should decide to home school your kids till they reach the time when they want to play middle or high school level sports? There’s always going to be trade offs. Even though our tribe’s making headways in the Bible Belt, how many of you are wearing face-masks to save you from that ever-present odor of anti-Catholicism floating through the air, especially within ten miles of a megachurch pastored by its local all-knowing, all-powerful and all well-paid pontiffs whose words are expected to be regarded even more infallibly (just because he says so, his words come straight out of the King James revised version and all his fawning worship attendees will tell you so.) Willingly or not, that’s besides the question. He’s got the whole town, in his hands, he’s got that itty bitty town, in his hands. And if your’re worried that your kids might pick up some unorthodox ideas from the public schools, it might do you well, if not actually better, to check to see exactly what those ideas are and whose getting them from what fundie “worship facility” with the express intentions of “sharing Jesus among friends” the way Jesus is “supposed to be shared, straight out of King James’ version,” not the one coming out of Rome, even if it’s titled “New Jerusalem.” They’re on to us, even if they overlook the fact that the KJ version came from the Stuarts, not exactly the mother country’s most ardent Protestant royal family. Ahhh, what’s a few facts when simplistic hogwash mixed in with overwhelming dollops of schmoozing your kids might suffice as a worthy “evangelistic tool” to sway those young impressionable Catholic kids coming into their towns, gated communities, condos and (sigh, trailer communities.) Never mind the boogeyman stuff published in conservative Catholic publications about the dangers of secular humanism, or horror stories about all the liberal goings on in Massachusetts, that land of heathens on the Charlesl and Connecticut Rivers, especially their God-forsaken college towns. You can straighten that out in a jiffy. It’s the ever so subtle pressures the kids of parents who are DEVOUTLY EVANGELICAL PROTESTANT and don’t home school their kids you have to worry about. (Maybe their infallible local popes encouraged them to do so for all we know. Or maybe never find out until it’s too late.) This stuff’s going on up in the old country, the northern states which haven’t seceded from reality yet. But don’t think you can move south, find a gated community and a parish to suit YOUR DESIRES AND NEEDS and expect the Lord to bless your drawbridge raising and porticulus dropping means of finding heaven on earth. (On the other hand, it does make one wonder why so many people fell in love with greater Orlando. I did for a while and I even worked twice for the Mouse for short college and in-between job hunt stints. Pixie Dust and Dixie Dust, and Fundie Ferti.. y’know: they’r enot good for one’s social, economic, mental and spiritual well-beings. As for politics, watch out all ye who are, or wannabe Dixie-heading carpetbagging Catholics, the South is a VERY unforgiving place if your career, personal economic situation, etc. go south. Pardon the pun, but, “social justice” ... hell’s bells, that phrase might as well have come from the moon to the folks down there, even conservaDems who aren’t much like your Northern Dems, especially the Catholic Dems up north. Small wonder after Mitt’s “47 percent” snub he thought was safely said behind closed doors to his ilk, most middle class voters were still willing to belly up their bars asking for more of that cheap rot-gut grape-tasting moonshine relabeled as kool aid. He probably thought all the Bubbas n’ Daisy Maes would still vote for him regardless of how badly he and his party, especially down there, would keep treating them. Welll, he represents the Boss Man, so he must know something.” Come up to Massachusetts and start asking some questions about Guv Boss Man. Ah, he went to New Hampshire, the closest thing to Mississippii or Alabama any serious minded Catholic from the olde country or colonies up here with functioning brains and souls could tolerate (save for having to put up with that half-hour drive up I-95 to reach Maine where we can breath fresher air once again. Caveat Carpetbagging Catholics: Y’all gonna git what yer asking for…and deserve

Posted by midwestlady on Saturday, May, 11, 2013 8:52 AM (EST):

This is a misleading title. We measure our gains in handfuls of seminarians, meanwhile 10% of the US is ex-Catholic. Time to stop the denial.

Posted by Fr Frank Watts on Saturday, May, 11, 2013 3:52 AM (EST):

I am a Catholic convert from the south. I was raised in Charlotte, NC. I became a traditional Anglican priest and military chaplain. I was received into the Church in 2011 in the UK and I am now a Priest in the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham.

Posted by Donald Morgan on Friday, May, 10, 2013 8:27 PM (EST):

I grew up Catholic in the “old” South Carolina. While our Diocese has existed since 1820, Most Catholics were in Charleston and Columbia. I grew up in the upstate where taunting and odd looks were normal when I mentioned that I was Catholic. I remember the klan drive-by’s at my Parish. The influx of northern transplants, along with converts has increased our Parishes, but we still are only a little over 130,000 Catholics in a State of 4.5 million.
I agree with James Dorchak that South Carolina is very fertile ground for Evangilization. Most of the growth I have seen either speaks with a “Yankee” accent, or speaks Spanish.

Posted by Grant on Friday, May, 10, 2013 7:02 PM (EST):

I live in Pennsylvania, sounds like I should head south because most of the people won’t even give you the time of day if you see them out side of church. for instance I usually sit in the same spot for years and the people in front of me are usually the same. Then when you see the same person that you have been shaking hands with treat you like they don’t even know you when outside of the church. After awhile it hardens your heart I finally moved to the other side of the church.Also when you say we believe the visible and invisible believe what you say just don’t say it,and that goes for the Priest also. I have been blessed with seeing the invisible,After this wonderful blessing I asked the Priest after mass did anyone say they seen anything out of the ordinary last week, He ask me why I said never mind he asked me again so I told him other people were leaving the church heard me. Weeks later during the homily he said don’t believe far fetched stories about people seeing things.He won’t give me the time of day or talk to me after my request to do so. I’m so discouraged but I still go to church.

Posted by Alan on Friday, May, 10, 2013 6:47 PM (EST):

I am a Catholic from New York City. I’ve always enjoyed going to mass while vacationing in the U.S. South. I find the masses there are relaxed, the people friendly, and the homilies and liturgy simply very nicely done. I alo briefly lived in the Poconos in PA, however, and had a very positive ecclesial experience there too, where I found much of the same.

Posted by Jcarr on Friday, May, 10, 2013 5:15 PM (EST):

The lack of education and lack of knowledge helped spread Protestantism. Let us continue to tell Americans and others in the most remote parts of the wolrd that many of today’s most fundamental questions about Christianity are not novel and have been discussed in great detail and eloquently by the greatest apologetic minds in the 2000 year history of Catholisism, and of course one could not know this unless one knows about St. Augustine, or St. Thomas Aquinas, or St. John of the. Cross, or read about the courage of men like Blessed Newman, Blessed John Paul, or the writings of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI. There is uncertain change in the air and even our most hateful enemies are beginning to turn and respect the steadfast continuity of the “Rock”. There’s nothing new about this. The “Rock” gives and always will give humanity, until God says time is up, in an ever changing and unsteady world, a place where we can always hold on and rest our hearts. May God continue to protect our Roman Catholic Church and our Pope Francis.

Posted by Reva Perkins on Friday, May, 10, 2013 4:26 PM (EST):

Have you looked at the Diocese of Charlotte? We have the biggest church in US located here in the midst of the fundamental churches. St. Matthews Catholic church has a large congregation a sanctuary that holds 1800 with each mass on Sunday overflowing to capacity such that there are two satelitte locations where Sunday masses are held. Please contact David Hains of the Diocese of Charlotte for details is interested.. I was baptized at St. Matthews after a conversion from a non-Christian faith. Catholics at this and other parishes in this Diocese are very active in the community.

Posted by Chardin on Friday, May, 10, 2013 4:25 PM (EST):

I’d always thought it odd that EWTN was out of Alabama. Figured something like this must be going on!

Posted by Steven Barrett on Friday, May, 10, 2013 2:59 PM (EST):

Take it from 1974 alum of what I still hope to be a good ol’ fashioned (Yankee) Catholic College in Miami Glades, St. Thomas University/Biscayne College)... I surely hope I don’t have to say too long from now, “Hell, there goes the neighborhood. These carpetbaggers are the serious kind! Why, they’re almost as infufferable as Fundies!” And they ain’t no fun, either!

Posted by Martin on Friday, May, 10, 2013 1:04 PM (EST):

This is anecdotal, but it strikes me that when I hear about the most notorious dissident priests and religious, they seem to be from north of the Mason-Dixon line. This may have something to do with the sad state of northern parishes.

Posted by Stephanie on Friday, May, 10, 2013 12:43 PM (EST):

If you want passion, seriousness and theological fire, start a Traditional Latin Mass community in a Northern church. And hold onto your hat!

Posted by gradchica on Friday, May, 10, 2013 12:32 PM (EST):

I’m a northern transplant to the south and have found the church—and the Christian community in general—to be much more visible than it was at home in NJ. People ask if you’ve found a church as soon as they know you’re new to the area and aren’t afraid to invite to you to attend their church’s activities with them. We moved to Charleston 3 years ago and love the beautiful liturgies at the Cathedral and historic St Mary’s—what a wonderful surprise to find such gorgeous churches & liturgies in the heart of the south. We moved from Charlottesville, VA, where the church is alive, growing, and on fire at UVa’s university parish. The Dominicans there have growth the parish and themselves, building a priory across from the church. The parishes we’ve belonged to in both cities share a commitment to reverence and to orthodoxy…and it seems to be paying off in both attendance & vocations.

Posted by happyclam on Friday, May, 10, 2013 12:08 PM (EST):

As a Floridian Catholic, this makes me proud. #SouthernPride

Posted by MLsouth on Friday, May, 10, 2013 10:35 AM (EST):

Music to our ears!!!

Posted by Glenna on Friday, May, 10, 2013 9:49 AM (EST):

Well, I’m a yankee by birth & a southerner by the grace of God. The Church has been notorious for shooting herself in the foot for centuries but, if there’s a “lessons learned” here for the northern Church, it’d be to keep the dioceses SMALL. That fosters accountability between the priests & the bishop & the priests & the people etc. Once all the responsibility moves to the Chancery, the lethargy that Pope Francis keeps talking about seeps in.

Posted by BHG on Friday, May, 10, 2013 8:56 AM (EST):

Some of it is transplants, some new converts. What do we do differently down here? We TALK about our faith. Move to the South and you will Be asked three questions: where are you from, just in case I might’ve visited there and we can talk about it; who are your people, in case we might know someone in common; and Have you found a church home? If you don’t have an answer to the last question, the next statement will be: would you like to come with me to church on Sunday? religion is part and parcel of the conversation of everyday life in the South. It’s one reason Catholics have to defend their faith, because Protestants here are not at all shy about approaching Catholics, sharing their Protestant faith, and trying to convert you. The other thing that we do differently at least in the archdiocese of Atlanta and coming soon to the diocese of Knoxville’s have regular Eucharistic congresses. There’s nothing like getting together with 30,000 or so of your closest Catholic friends in celebration of the Eucharist, in Eucharistic adoration, and listening to great speakers about the Eucharist to get your faith jumpstarted.

Posted by mariadevotee on Thursday, May, 9, 2013 11:15 PM (EST):

Then again, the Diocese of Nashville has 35 seminarians, from a population with 76K Catholics. A real explosion of Catholicism happening here. And the young Catholics view is the more orthodox the better. We love our Bishop Choby and our Dominican Sisters of St Cecilia, too.

Posted by Carol White on Thursday, May, 9, 2013 9:05 PM (EST):

Living in the North and growing up with others of the same Catholic faith was wonderful, but it wasn’t until I moved South that I really appreciated this precious gift. I have been priviledged to see the Diocese of Knoxville from its beginning, and what a joy to read this article about the growth of our church. Our diocese was the first to receive a special blessing from Pope Francis. All this encouragement is awesome. God is so good!

Posted by Rosemary on Thursday, May, 9, 2013 8:56 PM (EST):

Almost ten years ago we took a tour of Charleston. I was surprised when the fifth generation Southerner tour guide told us that the fastest growing church in the area was Catholic. He was surprised too! I went to a local Mass and was totally impressed by the reverence of the liturgy - so unlike in NY. If states are friendly to religious people, they may see that we bring our money with us when we move there.

Posted by Mark Pacoine on Thursday, May, 9, 2013 5:19 PM (EST):

So the homework assignment for all those in parish ministry in the Northeast is to help the faithful re-image themselves as welcoming, inviting, prayerful, joyful communities who don’t shy from going out of their way to love God and neighbor as self.

Growth I would suspect is fueled by refugees from the Mexican drug wars.

Also the Brothers of Saint John, a fairly new congregation from France, has a ministry there.

Posted by Phil on Thursday, May, 9, 2013 2:30 PM (EST):

I’m not sure this growth has much to do with evangelization. I think it would be better to cite the Catholic population growth over and against the overall population growth. I think we’ll find that much of it is a function of people in Boston and other places in the north where parishes are closing that are moving southward. If it is because they are making tons of converts it would be great to know what they are doing differently.

Posted by JoshD on Thursday, May, 9, 2013 10:59 AM (EST):

The mentioning of adult conversions both in the article and the comments, is the 2nd huge measure along with vocations. I was a cradle Catholic in the deep south, but was not Confirmed until I was 21. We had about 30-40 people in our RCIA class, and this was at a parish that was 1,000 families tops.

I work currently in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee at a vibrant, 1500 family, 160 year old parish. Most parishes in our district are amazed that we usually have an RCIA class of 5-10, as they’re thrilled to get 1-2.

Posted by JoshD on Thursday, May, 9, 2013 10:55 AM (EST):

I share the feelings of most everyone here. I was raised in an area that was 2-3% Catholic (Diocese of Pensacola-Tallahassee) most of my life. However that diocese is booming, both in terms of conversions and vocations, and the influx of Hispanic immigrants has boosted it even more.

I moved to Chicago for graduate school in 2002, expecting “Catholic heaven.” They had a Cardinal and a dozen auxiliary bishops. Their largest 10 parishes likely equalled the entire size or our entire diocese. They had a diocesan seminary and a joint seminary for a number of religious orders. They also had their own college and high school seminary! However, it was a complete shock at the lack of vibrancy in most of the parishes, at least compared to the “battlegrounds” of the Gulf Coast.

God bless the Catholic South!

Posted by James Dorchak on Thursday, May, 9, 2013 7:42 AM (EST):

As a South Carolinian, I have seen that as a whole the south has been ignored by the greater Catholic Church as a garden for planting the faith. There are exceptions, but even in the newer more traditional orders like the FSSP and others (even the SSPX) as well as non traditional orders, the south has seen great neglect. For instance you nearly never see retreats where the drive is less than one hour. You do not see the scott hann crowd or Michael Voris having great conferences in the South.(yes they do have their little visits), but I think to a large degree they are scared of the old south protestants, and they are quick to neglect the huge population of Catholics and former catholics who have in the past 10 years moved south and need to be brought back to The Faith. This is especially interesting since most of these people are the less liberal bent in politics and faith, which lends to the fact that they / we are just not fed. Also it is obvious that the respective diocese (with exceptions like Bishop Baker in Ala) just are not doing a good job of tending or feeding their flock. So to many in the church, the south is a great place to retire, but not a great place to evangelize. As a result there are many souls being lost in the south.

Posted by Deacon Ed Peitler on Thursday, May, 9, 2013 6:17 AM (EST):

Is it changing demographics or more faith-filled evangelization? The answer can be found in the number of adult baptisms. Look at dioceses along this dimension and you’ll find where the Church is truly growing and where the Spirit is moving.

Posted by Isabelle101 on Wednesday, May, 8, 2013 9:29 PM (EST):

Catholics in Alabama tend to know their faith very well. We have to because we are constantly being asked about it by our Baptist friends. They keep us on our toes. I suppose that is why God sent us Mother Angelica and her Monastery as a retreat and place of prayer. At my parish, everyone knows everyone and it is natural to care about people you know.

Posted by Kristine on Wednesday, May, 8, 2013 9:25 PM (EST):

I’m a transplant to the south from the north. A Protestant questioning my faith definitely moved me from a lukewarm Catholic to on fire. May all of the American church be on fire with the faith!

Posted by Patti Day on Wednesday, May, 8, 2013 9:09 PM (EST):

What a positive message. This gladdens my heart.

Posted by Angela fritz on Wednesday, May, 8, 2013 8:15 PM (EST):

Yes, yes, I know it!
God makes home south easily. Because they are humble. Being a military family, born from out of USA, lived in different places, South is the only place I felt home. Catholic in south, specially country area, I fall in love. Dear God, please formlet me settle in south!

Posted by Dom Rocheforte on Wednesday, May, 8, 2013 7:43 PM (EST):

I moved to the Dallas Fort Worth area from the Catholic stronghold of St Louis for 3 yrs. I cannot express in words how alive, how vibrant, how passionate the growing church is there. Christ is doing wonderful things for his Church in Texas. The churches are teeming, schools are flourishing. The mainstream media would like to paint this phenomenon as driven by immigration from Mexico, but in Dallas the churches are just as full of passionate WASP-converts. Being in a community with so many who have made the choice as an adult to embrace the faith, who are still “children” in their growth as Catholics, has helped me to grow in my own faith. There is an awareness that we were once a minority faith, and as such there is such an evangelical fervor, but tempered with loyalty to Magisterial truth. I attended a young adult mass in the area where many readers here might shudder at the use of drums, guitars and anthems from OCP’s “Spirit and Song.” But it was a standing room only Mass - weekly and consistently - in a large, packed urban church overflowing out the main doors onto the sidewalk outside, full of young adults, and young married couples in their twenties and early thirties - an unheard of sight in the Midwest or Northeast. Let me tell you - the congregation sings like a Protestant megachurch, responds to the priest with true reverence and enthusiasm, and when the liturgy of the Eucharist begins, there is not a knee unbent and a head unbowed (I am still disturbed that kneeling is frowned upon by my fellow mass-goers at the Jesuit church in St Louis). Most importantly, there is unity and orthodoxy in belief in the church’s social teachings - all of it. There is none of this fraught, angst-ridden, moral relativist questioning of established Magisterial truth the plagues the old “catholic” centers of the Northeast and Mideast. Converts embraced these truths as adults. They trust the hierarchy. Parishes pray for vocations weekly and foster them among their children, and I am amazed with what God has rewarded to those communities that prayed for them. This was not just true at my parish, but at others visited throughout Texas. I would dare speculate that Texas A&M’s Catholic Campus ministry produces more faithful, mature, orthodox, evangelical adult Catholics than Notre Dame. Just ask George Weigel, who has written about it.

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